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Voter access has become a deeply polarized issue in American politics. It is well known that policymakers' positions on election laws are often dictated by whether they think the laws will help their electoral interests and those of their party. But we know little about whether public opinion on election laws is similarly driven by partisan interest or is instead constrained by concerns of procedural legitimacy. To answer this question, I conduct a survey experiment that frames the issue of same-day registration (SDR) in terms of which major party it is expected to help electorally. The results provide clear evidence that both Democrats and Republicans are less likely to support SDR after being told the policy will primarily increase turnout among voters of the opposing party, but little evidence that being told SDR will benefit their own party affects opinion. These findings suggest an asymmetry in citizens' willingness to choose partisan interest over democratic principles based on whether they perceive a rule change as benefiting the in-party or out-party.

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a class of reforms increasingly used in the United States to replace plurality and runoff elections. We ask whether support for RCV taps a larger generational divide in politics. We consult five surveys, two of these from recent adoption campaigns, and all with different ways of asking about RCV support. Generation is a significant predictor in four of these samples, accounting for standard demographic factors and partisanship. This relationship also holds within black and Republican subgroups, two groups often thought to be less likely to support RCV. Finally, we find that dissatisfaction with "the way that democracy works in America" is a plausible link between generation and reform support. For better or worse, RCV has potential to divide two important voting blocs in America. Our results suggest that, rather than turn away from electoral politics, a disaffected young generation may turn to reform.Related ArticlesCormack, Lindsey. 2019. "Leveraging Peer‐to‐Peer Connections to Increase Voter Participation in Local Elections." Politics & Policy 47 (2): 248‐266. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12297Fisher, Patrick. 2020. "Generational Replacement and the Impending Transformation of the American Electorate." Politics & Policy 48 (1): 38‐68. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12340Shaykhutdinov, Renat. 2019. "Socialization, Rationality, and Age: Generational Gaps and the Attitudes toward the Chechen War in Russia." Politics & Policy 47 (5): 931‐955. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12323