No Surprises, Please: Voting Costs and Electoral Turnout

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

Abstract

Can well-intentioned policies create barriers to voting? Election administrators in Munich (Germany) recruit new polling places and control precinct sizes to improve voting accessibility, creating variation in the assignment of citizens to polling locations. Event study estimates suggest that polling place reassignments cause a persistent shift from in-person to mail-in voting and a transitory drop in total turnout of 0.4 percentage points (0.6%). The results are consistent with inattention to reassignments, causing some voters to miss requesting mail-in ballots and temporarily abstain from voting. Reassignments depress turnout more in elderly-heavy precincts and when distance to the polling location increases.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)59-97
Seitenumfang39
FachzeitschriftJournal of Political Economy Microeconomics
Jahrgang3
Ausgabenummer1
Frühes Online-Datum3 Dez. 2024
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - Feb. 2025
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Externe IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-6526-9663/work/180882777
Mendeley c5bfb5b8-1253-3dc9-bd63-24b15a4b0b1d