Does the ballot placement of Gov. Brown's tax measure give him an unfair advantage?
Does the ballot placement of Gov. Brown's tax measure give him an unfair advantage?
- July 12, 2012
- Carole Uhlaner, political science associate professor, is interviewed on 89.3 KPCC July 12, 2012
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From 89.3 KPCC:
Many election experts believe that appearing higher on a paper ballot can increase
a candidate's or law's chance of passing as fickle voters lose interest and their
eyes move farther down the ballot. Associate professor of political science at UC
Irvine, Carole Uhlaner, said she does not believe the order of ballot proposals on
the voting ticket matters. She acknowledged that "order matters" when dealing with
candidate races because many voters will "drop off" -- or suffer from voter fatigue
-- and tire when looking at a long list of names. However, Uhlaner asserts the phenomenon
of drop off does not apply to ballot propositions in the same way. "When you're dealing
with propositions, people aren't picking out of the ten or twelve propositions, they're
looking at it and they're voting yes or no," she said. "It's a completely different
dynamic."
Audio link available at:
http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2012/07/12/27379/jerry-brown-...
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