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Ranked choice voting (RCV) is a voting system used commonly around the world, but only rarely in the United States. I present here a study that investigates how American voters act in an RCV election. Using a survey experiment design, I compare the election outcome and the behaviors and attitudes of voters in a plurality election to an RCV election. I find evidence suggesting RCV may not significantly change election outcomes and have no positive impact on voters' confidence in elections and the democratic process. Study participants who voted in the RCV treatment were not any more likely to prefer RCV elections to plurality or majoritarian elections, and, overall, most voters do not prefer to vote in RCV elections and do not think that they result in fair election outcomes.Related Articles

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Related MediaRanked Choice Voting Resource Center. n.d. http://www.rankedchoicevoting.org/
. 2017. "Ranked Choice Voting Has Its Red‐Carpet Moment in 2017." March. http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/states-and-election-reform-the-canvass-march-2017.aspx


Carrigan, Don, and
Michael Kmack. 2017. "Maine Supreme Court Tackles Ranked Choice Voting." April 13. http://www.wcsh6.com/news/politics/elections/maine-supreme-court-tackles-ranked-choice-voting/431027688


Raeburn, Paul. 2016. "How Election 2016 Would Be Different with Ranked‐Choice Voting." October 17. http://www.newsweek.com/2016/10/28/election-2016-voting-science-510662.html


Green, Nato. 2017. "Ranked‐Choice Voting a Barrier to Participation." April 30. http://www.sfexaminer.com/ranked-choice-voting-barrier-participation/

Although voter turnout has received considerable attention in the political science literature, scholars do not yet have a complete understanding of how the costs of voting-- which I define as the various burdens that make voting a difficult and time-consuming activity, such as requiring people to register to vote, show identification, or travel to their polling place--affect the likelihood that a person will turn out to vote. Most previous research posits that changes in voting costs affect all potential voters equally and that turnout decreases uniformly across all demographic groups as voting costs increase. However, I contend that that demographics and voting costs interact with each other to affect voter turnout : according to my theory, voter demographics affect political resources, which, in turn, affect the ability to surmount voting costs. My dissertation uses two data sources to develop models of the demographics and voting costs that affect voter turnout. I interacted these two sets of variables in a series of regression models to gain a greater understanding of how voting costs might differentially affect people based on their individual characteristics. I use national data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study to provide a large-scale test of my theory and data from the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania to model these interactions while controlling for community and campaign factors. Using these results, I identify two primary findings. First, people with traditionally higher levels of political resources (including people with higher education levels, higher incomes, those with white- collar occupations, and those who are male and white) are more likely to not turn out to vote when information costs (including voter registration deadlines and the length of the ballot in the election) are increased. Second, people with traditionally lower levels of political resources (including people with lower education levels, lower incomes, and minorities) are primarily disadvantaged by the transaction costs of voting, such as requiring voter identification. My dissertation highlights the importance of opportunity costs to the act of voting and show that not all people react to voting costs in the same way. This has important implications for scholars' understanding of why people do or do not vote, how representative the electorate is, and how the government addresses the policy priorities of its citizens

Primary elections in the United States have been under-studied in the political science literature. Using new data to estimate the ideal points of primary election candidates and constituents, we examine the link between the ideological leanings of primary electorates and the ideological orientation of US congressional candidates. We use district-level data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study and ideal point estimates for congressional primary election candidates to examine the role of primary electorate ideology in the selection of party nominees. We find that more extreme Republicans are more likely to win their party's primary and that Republican and Democratic candidates are responsive to different electoral constituencies.

ABSTRACTGood education requires student experiences that deliver lessons about practice as well as theory and that encourage students to work for the public good—especially in the operation of democratic institutions (Dewey 1923; Dewy 1938). We report on an evaluation of the pedagogical value of a research project involving 23 colleges and universities across the country. Faculty trained and supervised students who observed polling places in the 2016 General Election. Our findings indicate that this was a valuable learning experience in both the short and long terms. Students found their experiences to be valuable and reported learning generally and specifically related to course material. Postelection, they also felt more knowledgeable about election science topics, voting behavior, and research methods. Students reported interest in participating in similar research in the future, would recommend other students to do so, and expressed interest in more learning and research about the topics central to their experience. Our results suggest that participants appreciated the importance of elections and their study. Collectively, the participating students are engaged and efficacious—essential qualities of citizens in a democracy.