Marc Meredith – American Politics Speaker Series

Red, Blue and Grey Abstract pattern

Online Meeting

Marc Meredith, University of Pennsylvania

“Does Mail Balloting Increase Informed Voting?”

Abstract: COVID-19 caused the use of mail balloting to increase dramatically in many elections held in the United States in 2020. One question that this raises is whether people differentially incorporate cues into their vote choices when voting by mail relative to when they vote in person. This presentation focuses on differences in the voting behavior of people who cast a mail ballot and voted in-person in Ohio’s State Supreme Court elections that were held concurrently with the 2020 presidential election. This is a case where I theorize that access to cues will be particularly important in shaping voter behavior because information about which party nominated a candidate does not appear on the ballot. My finding that there are smaller ballot-order effects among mail voters than in-person voters is consistent with mail voters being more likely to incorporate cues into their vote choice than in-person voters. However, there is also evidence that at least some of this relationship is driven by the types of voters who are selecting into mail balloting.