Do Perceptions of Ballot Secrecy Influence Turnout? Results from a Field Experiment

Although the secret ballot has been secured as a legal matter in the United States, formal secrecy protections are not equivalent to convincing citizens that they may vote privately and without fear of reprisal. We present survey evidence that those who have not previously voted are particularly lik...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of political science 2013-07, Vol.57 (3), p.537-551
Main Authors: Gerber, Alan S., Huber, Gregory A., Doherty, David, Dowling, Conor M., Hill, Seth J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absentee voting
Ballots
Citizens
Civic duty
Elections
Experiments
Field experiments
Institutions
Mailings
Parliamentary elections
Perceptions
Placebos
Political science
Secrecy
State elections
U.S.A
United States of America
Voter behavior
Voter registration
Voter Turnout
Voters
Votes
Voting
Voting turnout
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Summary:Although the secret ballot has been secured as a legal matter in the United States, formal secrecy protections are not equivalent to convincing citizens that they may vote privately and without fear of reprisal. We present survey evidence that those who have not previously voted are particularly likely to voice doubts about the secrecy of the voting process. We then report results from a field experiment where we mailed information about protections of ballot secrecy to registered voters prior to the 2010 general election. Consistent with our survey data, we find that these letters increased turnout for registered citizens without records of previous turnout, but they did not appear to influence the behavior of citizens who had previously voted. The increase in turnout of more than three percentage points (20%) for those without previous records of voting is notably larger than the effect of a standard get-out-the-vote mailing for this group. Overall, these results suggest that although the secret ballot is a long-standing institution in the United States, beliefs about this institution may not match the legal reality.
ISSN:0092-5853
1540-5907
DOI:10.1111/ajps.12019