Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-2pzkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-12T20:11:28.336Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early Voting and Turnout

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2007

Paul Gronke ,
Eva Galanes-Rosenbaum  and
Peter A. Miller
Paul Gronke
Affiliation:
Reed College
Eva Galanes-Rosenbaum
Affiliation:
Reed College
Peter A. Miller
Affiliation:
Reed College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Early or convenience voting—understood in this context to be relaxed administrative rules and procedures by which citizens can cast a ballot at a time and place other than the precinct on Election Day—is a popular candidate for election reformers. Typically, reformers argue that maximization of turnout is a primary goal, and reducing barriers between voters and the polls is an important method for achieving higher turnout. Arguments in favor of voting by mail, early in-person voting, and relaxed absentee requirements share this characteristic. While there are good theoretical reasons, drawn primarily from the rational choice tradition, to believe that early voting reforms should increase turnout, the empirical literature has found decidedly mixed results. While one prominent study suggests that voting by mail is associated with a 10% increase in turnout, other studies find smaller—but still statistically significant—increases in turnout associated with other convenience voting methods.This work is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the AEI/Brookings Election Reform Project, and the Charles McKinley Fund of Reed College. Thanks to Caroline Tolbert and Daniel Smith for sharing data with us, and to David Magleby for comments on an earlier version of this paper. All responsibility for interpretations lay with the authors.

Type
SYMPOSIUM
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 639 - 645
Copyright
© 2007 The American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ACE Project Page. 2004. Web site contains reports by the Administration and Cost of Elections Project. Stockholm, Sweden. Available at www.aceproject.org.Google Scholar
Aldrich, John H. 1993. “Rational Choice and Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 37: 246–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alvarez, R. Michael, and Thad Hall. 2003. “Whose Absentee Ballots are Counted?” Unpublished working paper. Washington, D.C.: Century Foundation.Google Scholar
Berinsky, Adam, Nancy Burns, and Michael Traugott. 2001. “Who Votes By Mail? A Dynamic Model of the Individual-Level Consequences of Voting-By-Mail Systems.” Public Opinion Quarterly 65: 178–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berinsky, Adam. 2004. “The Perverse Consequences of Electoral Reform in America.” Working paper. Department of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Bradbury, Bill. 2001. “The Voting Booth at the Kitchen Table.” New York Times, August 21.Google Scholar
Dubin, J. A., and G. A. Kalsow. 1996. “Comparing Absentee and Precinct Voters: A View Over Time.” Political Behavior 18 (4): 369–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gronke, Paul. 2000. The Electorate, the Campaign, and the Office. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gronke, Paul. 2004. “Early Voting Reforms and American Elections.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Hall, Thad. 2003. “Ensuring the Continuity of the United States Government: The Congress.” Prepared testimony before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, September 9.Google Scholar
Hanmer, Michael J., and Michael W. Traugott. 2004. “The Impact of Voting By Mail on Voter Behavior.” American Politics Research 32: 375–405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, John Mark. 2001. “To Assure Pride and Confidence in the Electoral Process.” Report prepared for the National Commission on Federal Election Reform. Charlottesville: Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.Google Scholar
Institute for Democracy, and Electoral Assistance (IDEA). “Postal Voting and Voting on the Internet.” Accessed at www.idea.int/vt/analysis/Postal_Voting_Internet_Voting.cfm (August 3, 2004).Google Scholar
Karp, Jeffrey A., and Susan A. Banducci. 2000. “Going Postal: How All-mail Elections Influence Turnout.” Political Behavior 22 (3): 223–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magleby, David B. 1987. “Participation in Mail Ballot Elections.” Western Political Quarterly 40 (March): 79–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, Michael P., and Samuel Popkin. 2001. “The Myth of the Vanishing Voter.” American Political Science Review 95 (4): 963–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagourney, Adam. 2002. “Early Voting Puts Many Candidates in Early Overdrive.” New York Times October 14, A1.Google Scholar
National Association of Secretaries of State. 2001. “Election Reform: State by State Best Practices.” Available at www.nass.org.Google Scholar
National Association of Secretaries of State. 2003. “New Millennium Best Practices Survey.” July. Washington, D.C.: NASS. Available at www.nass.org.Google Scholar
National Conference of State Legislatures. 2001. “Voting in America: Final Report of the NCSL Elections Reform Task Force.” Washington, D.C.: National Conference on State Legislatures; also available online at www.nscl.org.Google Scholar
Oliver, J. Eric. 1996. “The Effects of Eligibility Restrictions and Party Activity on Absentee Voting and Overall Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 40 (2): 498–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, S., and G. Caldeira. 1985. “Mailing in the Vote: Correlates and Consequences of Absentee Voting.” American Journal of Political Science 29: 766–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neeley, Grant W., and Lilliard Richardson. 2001. “Who is Early Voting? An Individual-level Examination.” Social Science Journal 38: 381–92.Google Scholar
Rosenstone, Steven, and John Mark Hansen. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Southwell, Priscilla L. 1996. “Final Report Survey of Vote-By-Mail Senate Elections.” Report presented to the Vote-By-Mail Citizen Commission, State of Oregon, April 3.Google Scholar
Southwell, Priscilla L. 1998. “Vote by Mail in the State of Oregon.” Willamette Law Review 34 (2): 345–56.Google Scholar
Southwell, Priscilla L. 2004. “Five Years Later: A Re-assessment of Oregon's Vote by Mail Electoral Process.” PS: Political Science and Politics 98 (1): 89–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southwell, Priscilla, and Justin Burchett. 2000a. “The Effect of All-Mail Elections on Voter Turnout.” American Politics Quarterly 28: 72–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southwell, Priscilla, and Justin Burchett. 2000b. “Does Changing the Rules Change the Players? Vote by Mail and the Composition of the Electorate.” Social Science Quarterly 81(4): 837–45.Google Scholar
Stein, Robert. 1998. “Early Voting.” Public Opinion Quarterly 62: 57–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, Robert, and Patricia A. Garcia-Monet. 1997. “Voting Early, but Not Often.” Social Science Quarterly 78: 657–71.Google Scholar
Stein, Robert, Chris Owens, and Jan Leighley. 2003. “Electoral Reform, Party Mobilization, and Voter Turnout.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Texiera, Rey. 1992. The Disappearing American Voter. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Tolbert, Caroline J., John A. Grummel, and Daniel A. Smith. 2001. “The Effects of Ballot Initiatives on Voter Turnout in the United States.” American Politics Research 29(6): 625–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolbert, Caroline J., and Daniel A. Smith. 2005. “The Educative Effects of Ballot Initiatives on Voter Turnout.” American Politics Research 33 (March): 283–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Michael W. 2003. “ Why Electoral Reform Has Failed: If You Build It, Will They Come?” In Rethinking the Vote, eds. Ann Crigler, Ed McCafferty, and Marion Just. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wintour, Patrick, and Helen Carter. 2002. “Postal Voting Boosts Turnout in Local Polls,” The Guardian (UK), May 1.Google Scholar
Wolfinger, Raymond E., and Steven J. Rosenstone. 1980. Who Votes? New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar