The Effect of the Secret Ballot on Voter Turnout Rates.

B-Tier
Journal: Public Choice
Year: 1995
Volume: 82
Issue: 1-2
Pages: 107-24

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Secrecy in the voting process eliminated an important motivation for voting. No longer able to verify the voters' choices, political parties stopped offering payments in return for votes. Within the rational voter framework, it will be shown that these payments were a prime impetus for people to vote. Without a vote market to cover their voting costs, many voters were rational to stay away from the polls. This hypothesis is supported through a series of empirical tests culminating in a multivariate legislative regression. When other electoral laws are controlled for, the secret ballot accounts for 7 percentage points lower gubernatorial turnout. Copyright 1995 by Kluwer Academic Publishers

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:kap:pubcho:v:82:y:1995:i:1-2:p:107-24
Journal Field
Public
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-02-02