Expressive Voting and the Effect of Voting Rules

Last registered on October 24, 2023

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Expressive Voting and the Effect of Voting Rules

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011123

Initial registration date

April 10, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

April 13, 2023, 4:06 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

October 24, 2023, 6:30 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Tian Liu

Affiliation

Texas A&M

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-03-21

End date

2024-04-18

Keywords

Behavior, Governance

Additional Keywords

voting, participation, satisfaction

JEL code(s)

Field Experiments, Political Economy

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

The most popular voting rule in the U.S. and many other countries is plurality. Some major problems with this voting rule arise because of vote splitting, and there has been a growing movement to shift away from plurality to other voting rules. One of the most popular alternative forms of voting is ranked choice voting (RCV). Currently 261 U.S. jurisdictions use voting methods other than the most popular single winner-take-all system. This number is likely to grow in the coming years, despite the lack of understanding of the effect of alternative voting rules on voter participation and satisfaction. I will conduct an RCT that randomly assigns voters to systems that use different voting rules and measure the rate of return to future elections as well as changes in satisfaction.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Liu, Tian. 2023. "Expressive Voting and the Effect of Voting Rules." AEA RCT Registry. October 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11123-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

I will assign voters to elections using different voting rules and measure the different rates of return to future elections.

Intervention Start Date

2024-03-21

Intervention End Date

2024-04-18

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Voter participation

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Voter participation in this context is the rate at which voters return to future elections

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Charitable giving patterns and answers at the end of survey that indicate voter satisfaction.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Charitable giving patterns will be measured as an end of election outcome, i.e. how many people donate and how much at the end of each election given treatment assignment. Questions at the end of the survey will be compiled to create an index of voter satisfaction. These questions will be: "Are you satisfied with the winner of the contest?", "If you could have changed your vote, would you?", "Are you happy with the choice of charities?", "Do you think the contest was fair?".

Experimental Design

2x3 experimental design varying 3 voting rules by 2 information treatments.

Experimental Design Details

When participants sign up, they will be randomly assigned to an election that uses ranked choice voting, plurality, or a fake ranked choice voting treatment in which only the first ballot vote is taken into consideration. The candidates across election rules will be constant. Within each election, voters will randomly be assigned to view a poll prior to the election that reveals the popularity of each charity.

For the calibration survey, I will get information on the distribution of political and charity preferences of Texas A&M students and alumni. I will use this information to simulate elections to see which elections are the ones most likely to result in different electoral outcomes. For the pilot, I will use the treatment arms that are most likely to experience the most polarized results. I will randomly assign voters to a plurality election with information or a ranked choice election with information.

Randomization Method

I will use the randomizer in qualtrics with even presentation. So participants will randomly be assigned to a block containing the election using the plurality rule, fake ranked choice, or real ranked choice.

Randomization Unit

Unit of randomization will be individual.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

9372 individuals

Sample size: planned number of observations

9372 individuals

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

For each treatment there will be 1562 individuals.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

According to a two independent proportions power test with a confidence level of 95%, power of 80%, and proportions of 50% and 55%, the minimum sample size for each group is 1562.

Supporting Documents and Materials

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