Technology and voter intent: Evidence from the california recall election

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dee, Thomas S.
• 署名单位: Swarthmore College; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest.89.4.674
• 发表日期: 2007-11
• 页码: 674-683
• 关键词: county

摘要

Conventional evaluations of voting systems focus on ballots for which no vote can be recorded (that is, residual votes). However, recorded votes that misrepresent voter intent are another potentially important, but less easily measured, source of error. I present evidence that a nontrivial number of voters in the recent California recall election mistakenly voted for one of the four candidates positioned next to the two major candidates on the ballot. I also find that punch-card systems significantly increased the frequency of these errors. These results indicate that future assessments of voting technologies should consider their effects on both recorded and residual votes.