Primacy Effects and Voting Methods (Literature Review)

• Authors: Steven Linder

Abstracts

EN

The primacy effect has long been considered a decisive factor in determining election outcomes and has consequently developed a robust literature dedicated to studying it in different scenarios and contexts. However, existing research has offered limited insight into how the choice of voting method, particularly by-mail voting, may infl uence its impact on elections by altering how and when voters participate. This article fi rst reviews why the primacy effect exists, how researchers identify its infl uence, and its overall impact on election outcomes. It then discusses why the use of by-mail voting should be expected to alter the primacy effect, and analyzes two works where this relationship has been explored. Their results highlight several of the issues faced when trying to examine this relationship, but also indicate that further study is warranted and likely to be fruitful.

Keywords

EN

electoral systems; election outcomes; ballot design; primacy effects; mail voting

• Publisher: Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego
• Journal: Decyzje
• Year: 2021
• Issue: 35
• Pages: 27-38

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

Steven Linder

Identifiers

DOI

10.7206/DEC.1733-0092.151

Biblioteka Nauki

2127574