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Does threatening their franchise make registered voters more likely to participate? Evidence from an aborted voter purge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2018

Daniel R. Biggers  and
Daniel A. Smith
Daniel R. Biggers*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of California, Riverside
Daniel A. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Florida
*
*Corresponding author. Email: Daniel.biggers@ucr.edu
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Abstract

Prior research predicts that election administration changes that increase voting costs should decrease participation, but it fails to consider that some interpret those changes as attacking their franchise. Drawing on psychological reactance theory, this study tests whether such perceived attacks might instead activate those citizens. It leverages the State of Florida’s multi-stage effort in 2012 to purge suspected non-citizens from its voter rolls, comparing the voting rates of suspected non-citizens whose registration was and was not formally challenged by the state. Within-registrant difference-in-difference and matching analyses estimate a positive, significant participatory effect of being challenged, particularly for Hispanics (the vast majority of the sample). Placebo tests show that those challenged were no more likely than those not challenged to vote in previous elections.

Keywords

election reform and administrationvoter turnoutpsychological reactancevoter purgeFlorida
Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , July 2020 , pp. 933 - 954
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018

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Supplementary material: Link

Biggers and Smith Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LIWMYQ
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Biggers and Smith supplementary material

Appendices 1-5

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