Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
Lott (2009) finds that nonvoted ballot rates for down-ballot races are greater than those for presidential races, and newer technologies that reduce nonvoted presidential ballots create even greater rates of nonvoting down-ballot than the same older voting technologies. The conclusion is momentous: adopting voting technologies that minimize under-voting in presidential races actually increases under-voting across all races on the same ballot. This study extends Lott's by examining the Congressional vote on the <italic>Help America Vote Act of 2002</italic> (<italic>HAVA 2002</italic>), which established a program to provide funds to states in order to replace punch card voting systems with newer technologies. We focus on the racial component of Lott's finding, specifically that Hispanic-American voters exhibit greater rates of voter fatigue than do white voters. This study posits that, given the large Hispanic-American populations in California and Texas and their propensity to support Democrats in these states, House Democrats from these states would not view the <italic>HAVA 2002</italic> as favourably as House Democrats from other parts of the US. Among other results presented here, the data show that support for <italic>HAVA 2002</italic> among California and Texas House Democrats was 11.6 percentage points below that of House Democrats from the other 48 states.