Ballot Titles and Voter Decision Making on Ballot Questions

Date01 June 2014
AuthorJeff Hastings,Damon Cann
DOI10.1177/0160323X14535410
Published date01 June 2014
Subject MatterGeneral Interests
General Interest
Ballot Titles and Voter Decision
Making on Ballot Questions
Jeff Hastings
1
and Damon Cann
1
Abstract
From gay marriage to taxation to environmental issues, many of our nation’s most important policy
issues are decided by voters through ballot questions. Conventional wisdom holds that information
provided on the ballot about the ballot questions heavily influences voters’ choices in those
elections, but there is little empirical evidence of this. We apply theories of framing to voters’
choices on ballot questions and design an experiment to test the hypothesis that ballot title wording
influences voters’ decisions. Even on a matter that is hotly contested and where the policy is
relatively noncomplex and relatively well understood by voters, we find strong framing effects for
changes in ballot title wording, though the effects are driven primarily by influencing whether
individuals who previously supported the measure abstained from participation.
Keywords
direct democracy, initiative, framing
Many of the most pressing issues in American
politics today are decided directly by the public
at the ballot box. From marijuana use to educa-
tion funding togay rights, voters are asked to set
policy on many of the most important political
matters of the day. While voters take a number
of factors into consideration when determining
how to vote on ballot questions, conventional
wisdom holds that the word ing of the title of the
ballot question heavily influences voters’ will-
ingness to supporta ballot measure. On the basis
of this supposition, proponents of a physician-
assisted suicide initiative in Washington suc-
cessfully lobbied to title their proposition as the
‘‘Death with Dignity Act.’’ Using similar logic,
proponents of an initiative that would fund a
high-speed rail system in California sought to
title their proposition ‘‘The Safe, Reliable
High-Speed Passenger Train Bond Act.’
While proponents will often seek a favor-
able ballot title, opponents may seek alternative
titles that favor their position, leading to exten-
sive litigation over the wording of ballot titles.
In Oregon alone, there were thirty-nine chal-
lenges to ballot titles in 1996 (Lund 1998).
Advocates in California have challenged ballot
titles on at least fourteen occasions in the last
four years. Other states have experienced simi-
lar trends in litigation, including Utah’s 2007
school voucher initiative, Florida’s 2010 health
care amendment, Colorado’s 2012 abortion ini-
tiative, and Missouri’s 2011 voter ID initiative.
While the time and expense devoted to bat-
tles over ballot titles suggest that political
1
Department of Political Science, Utah State University,
Logan, UT, USA
Corresponding Author:
Damon Cann, Department of Political Science, Utah State
University, Logan, UT 84322, USA.
Email: damon.cann@usu.edu
State and Local GovernmentReview
2014, Vol. 46(2) 118-127
ªThe Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permission:
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DOI: 10.1177/0160323X14535410
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