Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-wjqwx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-13T10:01:01.275Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does threatening their franchise make registered voters more likely to participate? Evidence from an aborted voter purge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2018

Daniel R. Biggers  and
Daniel A. Smith
Daniel R. Biggers*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of California, Riverside
Daniel A. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Florida
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prior research predicts that election administration changes that increase voting costs should decrease participation, but it fails to consider that some interpret those changes as attacking their franchise. Drawing on psychological reactance theory, this study tests whether such perceived attacks might instead activate those citizens. It leverages the State of Florida’s multi-stage effort in 2012 to purge suspected non-citizens from its voter rolls, comparing the voting rates of suspected non-citizens whose registration was and was not formally challenged by the state. Within-registrant difference-in-difference and matching analyses estimate a positive, significant participatory effect of being challenged, particularly for Hispanics (the vast majority of the sample). Placebo tests show that those challenged were no more likely than those not challenged to vote in previous elections.

Keywords

election reform and administrationvoter turnoutpsychological reactancevoter purgeFlorida
Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , July 2020 , pp. 933 - 954
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Albarracin, D, Cohen, JBKumkale, GT (2003) When communications collide with recipients’ actions: effects of post-message behavior on intentions to follow the message recommendation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 29, 834–845.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alvarez, RM, Bailey, DKatz, J (2010) An empirical Bayes approach to estimating ordinal treatment effects. Political Analysis 19, 20–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amos, B, Smith, DASte. Claire, C (2017) Reprecincting and voting behavior. Political Behavior 39, 133–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansolabehere, SHersh, E (2014) Voter registration: the process and quality of lists. In Burden BC and Stewart C, (eds) The Measure of American Elections. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 61–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barreto, M, Nuño, SSanchez, G (2007) Voter ID requirements and the disenfranchisements of Latino, black and Asian voters. Paper Presented at the American Association of Political Science, Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, 30 August–2 September.Google Scholar
Barreto, M, Nuño, SSanchez, G (2009) The disproportionate impact of voter-id requirements on the electorate—new evidence from Indiana. PS: Political Science and Politics 42, 111–116.Google Scholar
Barrett, D (2015) Brexit: Block Non-UK Citizens from Voting in EU Referendum, Says New Report. The Telegraph, 22 October.Google Scholar
Bensley, LSWu, R (1991) The role of psychological reactance in drinking following alcohol prevention messages. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 21, 1111–1124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berinsky, AJ (2005) The perverse consequences of electoral reform in the United States. American Politics Research 33, 471–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biggers, DR (2014) Can the Backlash Against Voter ID Laws Mobilize Low-Propensity Voters? A Field Experiment Examining Voter Mobilization Through Psychological Reactance. Paper Presented at 2014 the American Political Science Association Annual Conference, Washington, DC, 28–31 August.Google Scholar
Biggers, DR.Smith, DA. (2018) “Replication Data for: Does Threatening their Franchise Make Registered Voters More Likely to Participate? Evidence from an Aborted Voter Purge”, https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LIWMYQ, Harvard Dataverse, V1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blais, A (2000) To Vote or Not to Vote. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brady, HEMcNulty, JE (2011) Turning out to vote: the costs of finding and getting to the polling place. American Political Science Review 105, 115–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brehm, JW (1966) A Theory of Psychological Reactance. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Brehm, SSBrehm, JW (1981) Psychological Reactance. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Brown, R (2012) Florida halts its search for violations of voter law. New York Times, 9 June.Google Scholar
Burden, BC, Canon, DT, Mayer, KRMoynihan, DP (2014) Election laws, mobilization, and turnout: the unanticipated consequences of election reform. American Journal of Political Science 58, 95–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgoon, Met al. (2002) Revisiting the theory of psychological reactance: communicating threats to attitudinal freedom. In Dillard JP and Pfau M, (eds) The Persuasion Handbook: Developments in Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 213–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bushman, BJ (1998) Effects of warning and information labels on consumption of full-fat, reduced-fat, and no-fat products. Journal of Applied Psychology 83, 97–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, A (2003) Participatory reactions to policy threats: senior citizens and the defense of Social Security and Medicare. Political Behavior 25, 29–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Card, DKrueger, A (1994) Minimum wages and employment: a case study of the fast-food industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. American Economics Review 84, 772–784.Google Scholar
Detzner, K (2012) Letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Available from http://stage.dos.myflorida.com/umbraco/pdf/6-19- 2012_Sec_Detzner_Letter_to_DHS_Sec_Napolitano.pdf, accessed 20 January 2018.Google Scholar
Gerber, AS, Green, DPLarimer, CW (2008) Social pressure and voter turnout: evidence from a large-scale field experiment. American Political Science Review 102, 33–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerber, AS, Green, DPLarimer, CW (2010) An experiment testing the relative effectiveness of encouraging voter participation by inducing feelings of pride or shame. Political Behavior 32, 409–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giammo, JDBrox, BJ (2010) Reducing the costs of participation: are states getting a return on early voting? Political Research Quarterly 63, 295–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grandpre, Jet al. (2003) Adolescent reactance and anti-smoking campaigns: a theoretical approach. Health Communication 15, 349–366.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, DPGerber, AS (2015) Get Out the Vote!, 3rd Edition, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Grimmer, Jet al. (2018) Obstacles to estimating voter ID laws’ effect on turnout. Journal of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1086/696618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groenendyk, EWBanks, AJ (2014) Emotional rescue: how affect helps partisans overcome collective action problems. Political Psychology 35, 359–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gronke, PMiller, P (2012) Voting by mail and turnout in Oregon: revisiting Southwell and Burchett. American Politics Research 40, 976–997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gruber, J (1994) The incidence of mandated maternity benefits. American Economic Review 84, 622–641.Google ScholarPubMed
Hajnal, Z, Lajevardi, NNielson, L (2017) Voter identification laws and the suppression of minority votes. Journal of Politics 79, 363–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanmer, MJ (2009) Discount Voting. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasen, RL (2012) The Voting Wars. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Haspel, M MosheKnotts, HG (2005) Location, location, location: precinct placement and the costs of voting. Journal of Politics 67, 560–573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayduk, R (2006) Democracy for All. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Herron, MCSmith, DA (2014) Race, party, and the consequences of restricting early voting in Florida in the 2012 general election. Political Research Quarterly 67, 646–665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herron, MCSmith, DA (2016) Race, Shelby County, and the voter information verification act in North Carolina. Florida State University Law Review 43, 465–506.Google Scholar
Ho, DEet al. (2007) Matching as nonparametric processing for reducing model dependence in parametric causal inference. Political Analysis 15, 199–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hood, MV IIIBullock, CS III (2008) Worth a thousand words? An analysis of Georgia’s voter identification statute. American Politics Research 36, 555–579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iacus, SM, King, GPorro, G (2012) Causal inference without balance checking: coarsened exact matching. Political Analysis 20, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, A (2016) Ohio’s process for removing voters from rolls is illegal, court rules. Columbus Dispatch, 23 September.Google Scholar
Keyssar, A (2009) The Right to Vote, Rev. Edition, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kimball, D, Kropf, MBattles, L (2006) Helping America vote? Election administration, partisanship, and provisional voting in the 2004 election. Election Law Journal 5, 447–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kousser, M (1974) The Shaping of Southern Politics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Laurin, K, Kay, ACFitzsimons, GJ (2012) Reactance versus rationalization: divergent responses to policies that constrain freedom. Psychological Science 23, 205–209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leighley, JENagler, J (2014) Who Votes Now?. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mann, CB (2010) Is there backlash to social pressure? A large-scale field experiment on voter mobilization. Political Behavior 32, 387–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matland, REMurray, GR (2012) An experimental test for ‘backlash’ against social pressure techniques used to mobilize voters. American Politics Research 41, 359–386.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcus, GE, Neuman, WRMacKuen, N (2000) Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, MPLevitt, J (2008) Seeing double voting: an extension of the birthday problem. Election Law Journal 7, 111–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merivaki, TSmith, DA (2016) Casting and verifying provisional ballots in Florida. Social Science Quarterly 97, 729–747.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, JMKrosnick, JA (2004) Threat as a motivator of political activism: a field experiment. Political Psychology 25, 507–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minnite, LC (2010) The Myth of Voter Fraud. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Murray, GRMatland, RE (2014) Mobilization effects using mail: social pressure, descriptive norms, and timing. Political Research Quarterly 67, 304–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ponniah, K (2016) EU referendum: the non-Britons planning to vote. BBC News, 20 May.Google Scholar
Ringold, DJ (2002) Boomerang effects in response to public health interventions: some unintended consequences in the alcoholic beverage market. Journal of Consumer Policy 25, 27–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scher, RK (2011) The Politics of Disenfranchisement. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Sherman, A (2012) Move On Says Florida Election Supervisors Refuse to Participate in Noncitizen Voter Purge. PolitiFact Florida, 10 July. Available from http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2012/jul/10/moveon/moveon-says-florida- election-supervisors-refuse-pa/, accessed 20 January 2018.Google Scholar
Stein, RVonnahme, G (2008) Engaging the unengaged voter: vote centers and voter turnout. Journal of Politics 70, 487–497.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, DWMartin, IM (1994) Intended and unintended consequences of warning messages: a review and synthesis of empirical research. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 13, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, G (2014) Databases, felons, and voting: bias and partisanship of the Florida felons list in the 2000 elections. Political Science Quarterly 119, 453–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swinford, S (2016) Voters may have to show ID to combat voter fraud in ‘vulnerable’ areas. The Telegraph, 27 December.Google Scholar
Tam Cho, WK, Gimpel, JGWu, T (2006) Clarifying the role of SES in political participation: policy threat and Arab American mobilization. Journal of Politics 68, 977–991.Google Scholar
Valentino, NANeuner, FG (2017) Why the sky didn’t fall: mobilizing anger in reaction to voter ID laws. Political Psychology 38, 331–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valentino, NAet al. (2011) Election night’s alright for fighting: the role of emotions in political participation. Journal of Politics 73, 156–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, TA (2012) The Politics of Voter Suppression. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicklund, RA (1974) Freedom and Reactance. Potomac, MD: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Wolfinger, RRosenstone, S (1980) Who Votes?. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ziegler, R (2017) Voting Rights of Refugees. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Biggers and Smith Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LIWMYQ
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Biggers and Smith supplementary material

Appendices 1-5

Download Biggers and Smith supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 392.1 KB