Social:Voter fatigue

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Short description: Cause of lower voter participation


In political science, voter fatigue is a cause of voter abstention which result from the electorates of representative democracies being asked to vote often, on too many issues or without easy access to relevant information.[1] Voter fatigue can be a symptom of efforts that make voting more difficult that some describe as voter suppression, which changes the voting rules and environment in such a way that turnout decreases as the cost of voting increases.

Causes

According to the traditional understanding of the concept, voter fatigue arises when citizens are asked to vote frequently or fill out lengthy ballots.[2][3][4][5] Voter fatigue can be contributed to by a psychological phenomenon known as decision fatigue. As this suggests, our brain becomes mentally fatigued after making numerous decisions, so it will attempt to make shortcuts to decrease the workload. As decision fatigue increases, more voters abstain.[6] This can result in lower voter turnout rates.[3]

The process of voting can also be confusing or challenging. In the U.S., the Cost of Voting Index estimates how difficult it is to vote (and register to vote) in each state.[7][8] The index doesn't include other challenges like voter roll purges[9] or such if signature verification standards are so strict that they throw out many more valid votes than invalid ones, with some states requiring residents to 'cure' their ballots by re-signing.[10][11][12]

Combating voter fatigue

Some of the methods proposed to combat voter fatigue include:

  • Consolidate the number of elections, especially off-year elections.[1][13][14][15]
  • Guard against long and complex ballots.[13]
  • Use sortition (e.g. citizens' juries) instead of elections for some decisions.[16]
  • Make voting easier,[17] including the process of finding civic information.[18]
  • Experiment with incorporating aspects of E-democracy, proxy voting and delegated voting.

Examples

In the run-up to the 2019 UK General Election, it was suggested by some media outlets that the electorate might be altered by abstention from voter fatigue from the third General Election in little over 4 years, having seen one in 2015 and the snap election of 2017, either side of the 2016 EU Membership Referendum.[19]

In Israel, five snap elections from 2019-2022 has led to concerns about voter fatigue.[20]

See also

  • Donor fatigue, increased apathy about giving to charitable or humanitarian causes
  • Political apathy

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kostelka, Filip; Krejcova, Eva; Sauger, Nicolas; Wuttke, Alexander (June 1, 2023). "Election Frequency and Voter Turnout". Comparative Political Studies. doi:10.1177/00104140231169020. https://repository.essex.ac.uk/35762/1/Kostelka_Krejcova_Sauger_Wuttke_2023_Election_Frequency_%26_Turnout.pdf. 
  2. ↑ Seib, J. Drew (2016-09-01). "Coping with lengthy ballots" (in en). Electoral Studies 43: 115–123. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2016.05.011. ISSN 0261-3794. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Demsas, Jerusalem (2023-08-21). "Americans Vote Too Much" (in en). https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/american-election-frequency-voter-turnout/675054/. 
  4. ↑ Garmann, Sebastian (March 2017). "Election frequency, choice fatigue, and voter turnout" (in en). European Journal of Political Economy 47: 19–35. doi:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2016.12.003. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0176268016303263. 
  5. ↑ Rallings, C.; Thrasher, M.; Borisyuk, G. (March 2003). "Seasonal factors, voter fatigue and the costs of voting" (in en). Electoral Studies 22 (1): 65–79. doi:10.1016/S0261-3794(01)00047-6. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0261379401000476. 
  6. ↑ Augenblick, Ned; Nicholson, Scott (December 2015). "Ballot Position, Choice Fatigue, and Voter Behaviour" (in en). The Review of Economic Studies 83 (2): 460–480. doi:10.1093/restud/rdv047. ISSN 0034-6527. https://academic.oup.com/restud/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/restud/rdv047. 
  7. ↑ Schraufnagel, Scot; Pomante, Michael J.; Li, Quan (2022-09-01). "Cost of Voting in the American States: 2022*" (in en). Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy 21 (3): 220–228. doi:10.1089/elj.2022.0041. ISSN 1533-1296. 
  8. ↑ Corasaniti, Nick; McCann, Allison (2022-09-20). "The 'Cost' of Voting in America: A Look at Where It's Easiest and Hardest" (in en-US). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/20/us/politics/cost-of-voting.html. 
  9. ↑ "Voter Purges | Brennan Center for Justice" (in en). 20 July 2018. https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/vote-suppression/voter-purges. 
  10. ↑ Litt, David (2020). Democracy in one book or less: how it works, why it doesn't, and why fixing it is easier than you think (First ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 978-0-06-287936-3. OCLC 1120147424. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1120147424. 
  11. ↑ Graham, David A. (2020-10-21). "Signed, Sealed, Delivered—Then Discarded" (in en). https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/signature-matching-is-the-phrenology-of-elections/616790/. 
  12. ↑ Justin Levitt, Wendy R. Weiser, and Ana Muñoz (March 24, 2006). "Making the List: Database Matching and Verification Processes for Voter Registration". https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/2019-08/Report_Making-the-List.pdf. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Demsas, Jerusalem (2023-08-21). "Americans Vote Too Much" (in en). https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/american-election-frequency-voter-turnout/675054/. 
  14. ↑ Hersh, Eitan (2015-11-03). "How Democrats Suppress The Vote" (in en-US). https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-democrats-suppress-the-vote/. 
  15. ↑ Anzia, Sarah F. (2011-04-01). "Election Timing and the Electoral Influence of Interest Groups". The Journal of Politics 73 (2): 412–427. doi:10.1017/S0022381611000028. ISSN 0022-3816. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1017/S0022381611000028. 
  16. ↑ Anthony, Andrew (2016-07-18). "Against Elections: The Case for Democracy by David Van Reybrouck – review" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/18/against-elections-the-case-for-democracy-david-van-reybrouck-review. 
  17. ↑ Ali, Shirin (2022-09-28). "These are the most difficult states to vote in" (in en-US). https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/accessibility/3665190-these-are-the-hardest-states-to-vote-in/. 
  18. ↑ Rusch, Elizabeth (2020). You call this democracy? : how to fix our government and deliver power to the people. Boston. ISBN 978-0-358-17692-3. OCLC 1124772479. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1124772479. 
  19. ↑ Proctor, Katie (2019-10-26). "Voters' disillusionment renders expected election tough to call" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/26/voters-disillusionment-renders-expected-election-tough-to-call. 
  20. ↑ Kavaler, Tara (23 March 2021). "A Quiet Election Day in Israel as Voter Fatigue Dampens Turnout". https://themedialine.org/top-stories/a-quiet-election-day-in-israel-as-voter-fatigue-dampens-turnout/. 



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