Submitted by admin on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 14:43.
Date Published:
01/01/2009Author(s):
R. Michael Alvarez
Richard L. Hasen
Betsy Sinclair
Previous empirical research and other related research from survey methodology holds that candidates listed first on an election ballot may gain some measure of advantage from this ballot placement. Using data from the 1998 general election in California, we test whether a candidate’s relative position on the ballot has any statistical effect on vote shares. We find little systematic evidence that candidate vote shares benefit from being listed first on the ballot.
