Research
Articles
MARSHA MATSON
University of Miami
TERRI SUSAN FINE
University of Central Florida
Gender, Ethnicity, and Ballot Information:
Ballot Cues in Low-Information Elections
In November 1996, voters cast
ballots for candidates running for 57 seats on 15 community advising and
zoning boards in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Voters had little knowledge
about the candidates or the boards that had been created only a few months
earlier. The candidates campaigned for seven weeks. The local media generally
ignored them. There were no incumbents and no party labels in the nonpartisan
contests. In low-information local elections such as these, voter cues and
ballot design plays a decisive role in voter choice. The cues in this election
were candidates' gender, ethnicity, campaign expenditures, and ballot position.
Our results indicate that the most important cue was candidate gender; however,
voters used ethnicity to decide whether they voted for men or women. The
number of candidates on the ballot impacted vote share, while ballot position
played no significant role. Those candidates who spent the most campaign
money were also preferred. We argue that vote cues provide a means to address
voter fatigue, where gender, ethnicity, and name recognition provide cues
in this low-information, high voter fatigue situation. Our results suggest
that by spending greater on their campaigns, Hispanic women—the most
disadvantaged of the candidates—could run competitively against Hispanic
men.
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