The ballot order effect is the tendency for a candidate listed first on an election ballot to receive a small but measurable increase in votes compared with an otherwise identical candidate listed in a lower position, an advantage that tends to be more pronounced in nonpartisan elections or in elections where voters have relatively little information about the candidates. Two mechanisms are generally offered to explain the effect: the primacy effect, the general tendency to better remember and more favorably weight items encountered first, and a limited-information hypothesis, under which voters who lack substantial knowledge about the candidates use ballot position itself as a low-effort cue in making their choice.
Facts
Core ClaimCandidates who are listed first often receive a small but statistically significant increase in votes compared to those listed in lower positions. This effect is typically more noticeable in nonpartisan or low information elections. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Connections
In Branch
Source Wikipedia: Ballot Order Effect
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Ballot Order Effect
Wikimedia FoundationLead paragraph
Candidates who are listed first often receive a small but statistically significant increase in votes compared to those listed in lower positions. This effect is typically more noticeable in nonpartisan or low information elections.
- History section, Bain and Hecock, Ballot Position and Voter's Choice (1957)
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
The ballot order effect refers to the effect of voting behavior based on the placement of candidates' names on an election ballot.
In Branch: Political Psychology, Categories
Wikipedia article 'Ballot order effect' is filed under Category:Political psychology.
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