Re: mail ballots, voter turnout and election quality

[Peter or Alison Richards <aprichards@xxxxxxxx>]

Neal;

Thanks for the additional information below...

In Switzerland, all ballots are mailed to all citizens eligible to
vote...

There is no such thing as 'voter registration'...  if you are a citizen,
and older than X,  you get a ballot.

All ballots are returned to the local precint polling location, either in
person, or by return mail.

They do not go to a central voting headquarters, for processing and
counting.

All ballots are counted in the local precinct polling station, over the
three days the election takes place, Fri, Sat and Sunday.

Bye,  Peter Richards



On Mon, 7 Nov 2005 08:46:47 -0700 Neal McBurnett <neal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
writes:
> There is a fascinating paper on why people vote, and how the 
> quantity
> and quality of the votes are affected by the option of mailing in 
> your
> ballot.
> 
>  "It may be that the most valuable payoff of voting is simply being
>  seen at the polling place by your friends or co-workers."
> 
> It observes that in Switzerland, the option of mailing ballots in
> didn't affect aggregate turnout significantly.  Turnout went 
> slightly
> up in big communities, and correspondingly down in small ones.
> 
> I think it will take techniques like those described at
>  http://www.taoofdemocracy.com/
> 
> to both increase both the quantity and quality of democracy.
> 
> Below are some excerpts from the original paper.  Below that is a 
> bit
> from a New York Times article that touched on some of these themes,
> brought to my attention by Peter Richards.
> 
> Neal McBurnett                 http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/
> Signed and/or sealed mail encouraged.  GPG/PGP Keyid: 2C9EBA60
> 
> Theory and Evidence on the role of Social Norms in Voting
>  Patricia Funk, SITE, Stockholm School of Economics, Box 6501, 113 
> 83
>   Stockholm, Sweden. Tel.: ++ 46 8 736 9684   E-Mail: 
> patricia.funk@...
>  http://www.pubchoicesoc.org/papers2005/Funk.pdf 
> 
>   This paper investigates social norms and voting behavior. I argue
>   that social norms create incentives for signaling, i.e. voting 
> for
>   the purpose of being seen at the voting act.  Empirical evidence 
> on
>   signaling can be gained by the introduction of optional postal
>   voting in Switzerland. Even though the possibility of mail voting
>   reduced voting costs substantially, it didn't increase
>   turnout. Consistent with my model's predictions, voter turnout
>   decreased more in the smaller communities, but in the meantime, 
> the
>   share of cooperators (= interested voters) was more positively
>   affected there.
> 
>   ... The introduction of mail voting had no significant impact on
>   (Cantonal) turnout at parliamentary elections.
> 
>   ...in small communities where social pressure forced a 
> substantial
>   share of people to go to the polls, turnout decreased as soon as
>   mail voting and the possibility of cheating was given.
> 
>   ...At least for small communities... modern voting tools may
>   decrease average turnout, but nevertheless increase the quality 
> of
>   the voting outcome.
> 
>   Mail voting never replaced the polls, but was offered as a 
> further
>   option.
> 
> ---
> 
>  
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/magazine/06freak.html?oref=login&pagewa
nted=print
> 
> Why Vote? by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt
>  A Swiss Turnout-Boosting Experiment
>  November 6, 2005  Freakonomics
> 
>  [When mail-ballot elections were introduced in Switzerland] voter
>  turnout often decreased, especially in smaller cantons and in the
>  smaller communities within cantons
> 
>  In other words, we do vote out of self-interest - a conclusion 
> that
>  will satisfy economists - but not necessarily the same 
> self-interest
>  as indicated by our actual ballot choice. For all the talk of how
>  people "vote their pocketbooks," the Swiss study suggests that we 
> may
>  be driven to vote less by a financial incentive than a social one. 
> It
>  may be that the most valuable payoff of voting is simply being 
> seen
>  at the polling place by your friends or co-workers.
> 
>