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Election Outcomes Affected by Ballots

The new IDEA study "How Details Given on Ballot Papers Affect the Outcomes of Local and Regional Elections" concludes that election success of a given candidate may depend on marginal  factors, for example on the line-up of names or on the slates position on randomly ordered ballot papers. 

• Voters make their decision based on three types of information.
• First comes the information about the candidates' views, promises and capabilities, which the voters gather prior to the election.
• The second type of information about the candidates is what they find on the ballot paper: their gender, age, academic titles and profession; these characteristics may be related to the opinions and capabilities of the candidates.
• Finally, so called "electoral indicators" of the slate --  for example the candidate's name, or the line-up of the candidates' names -- seem to play a very important role regaridng the 'visibility' of a specific candidate.

For more information please see the short description here.