Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-j5c6p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-04T05:43:07.440Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Effect of Election Administration on Voter Confidence: A Local Matter?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2007

Lonna Rae Atkeson  and
Kyle L. Saunders
Lonna Rae Atkeson
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
Kyle L. Saunders
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The 2000 presidential election was a wake-up call to elected leaders, public officials, and election scholars. The electoral fiasco—most prominent in Florida, but also taking place in states like New Mexico and Ohio—revealed many deficiencies in voting equipment (Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project 2001). In addition to faulty equipment, registration mix-ups and problems with absentee ballots led to the loss of as many as six million votes (Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project 2001). Confusing ballots, like the butterfly ballot in Florida's Dade County, were found to have led voters to vote incorrectly (Wand et al. 2001). While these problems have, no doubt, existed for a long time, the closeness of the 2000 presidential race and the fact that the number of lost votes had the power to change the election outcome have brought election administration questions to the forefront of policy making.Results were first presented at “The Future of Election Reform and Ethics in the States,” hosted by Kent State University, Department of Political Science, Columbus, Ohio, January 16–17, 2007, and the following paper was presented at the Midwest Political Science Association's Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–15, 2007. Data were collected by monies generously provided by the University of New Mexico's Research Allocation Committee. We'd like to thank Luciana Zilberman, Lisa Bryant, Alex Adams, David Magleby, and the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University for their assistance with this project. Of course, any errors are our own.

Type
SYMPOSIUM
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 655 - 660
Copyright
© 2007 The American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramson, Paul R. 1983. Political Attitudes in America. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Alvarez, R. Michael, Thad E. Hall, and Morgan Llewellyn. 2006. “Are Americans Confident Their Ballots are Counted?” Typescript. Caltech University.Google Scholar
American National Election Studies. 2007. Available at: www.electionstudies.org/nesguide/gd-index.htm#5.Google Scholar
Bowler, Shaun, and Todd Donovan. 2002. “Democracy, Institutions, and Attitudes about Citizen Influence on Government.” British Journal of Political Science 32 (2): 371–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, Paul R., and Lee Sigelman. 2002. “Trust in Government: Personal Ties that Bind?” Social Science Quarterly 83 (2): 624–31.Google Scholar
Bullock, Charles III, M. V. Hood II, and Richard Clark. 2005. “Punch Cards, Jim Crow, and Al Gore: Explaining Voter Trust in the Electoral System in Georgia, 2000.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 5 (3): 283–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project. 2001. “Voting: What is, What could Be.” Available at: http://vote.caltech.edu.Google Scholar
Cook, Timothy E., and Paul Gronke. 2005. “The Skeptical American: Revisiting the Meanings of Trust in Government and Confidence in Institutions.” Journal of Politics 67 (3): 784–803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalton, Russell. 1999. “ Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies.” In Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Government, ed. Pippa Norris. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 57–77.Google Scholar
Hall, Thad E., Quin Monson, and Kelly Patterson. 2007. “Poll Workers and the Vitality of Democracy.” PS: Political Science and Politics 40 (October): 647–54.Google Scholar
Hill, David B. 1981. “Attitude Generalization and the Measurement of Trust in American Leadership.” Political Behavior 3: 257–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, Robert F. Jr. 2006. “Was the 2004 Election Stolen?” Rolling Stone, June 15. Available at: www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 1999. “ The Growth of Critical Citizens and its Consequences.” In Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Government, ed. Pippa Norris. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pew Research Center for the People, and the Press. 2006. “Democrats Hold Enthusiasm, Engagement Advantage November Turnout May Be High.” News Release, Wednesday, October 11. Available at: http://people-press.org/reports/.Google Scholar
Price, Vincent, and Anca Romantan. 2004. “Confidence in Situations Before, During and After Indecision 2000. Journal of Politics 66 (3): 939–56.Google Scholar
Rahn, Wendy M, John Brehm, and Neil Carlson. 1999. “ National Elections as Institutions for Generating Social Capital.” In Civic Engagement in American Democracies, eds. Theda Skocpol and Morris P. Fiornia. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Tomz, Michael, Jason Wittenberg, and Gary King. 2000. “CLARIFY: Software for Interpreting and Presenting Statistical Results.” Version 1.2.2. Cambridge: Harvard University. Available at: http://gking.harvard.edu.Google Scholar
Wand, Jonathan N., Kenneth W. Shotts, Jasjet S. Sekhon, Walter R. Mebane Jr., Michael C. Herron, and Henry E. Brady. 2001. “The Butterfly Did It: The Aberrant Vote for Buchanan in Palm Beach County, Florida.” American Political Science Review 95 (4): 793–810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar