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Biases in Local Government Elections Due to Position on the Ballot Paper
Author(s) -
Brook D.,
Upton G. J. G.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
journal of the royal statistical society: series c (applied statistics)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.205
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1467-9876
pISSN - 0035-9254
DOI - 10.2307/2347133
Subject(s) - ballot , position (finance) , political science , government (linguistics) , public administration , law and economics , voting , law , economics , politics , philosophy , linguistics , finance
Summary This study of the 1973 Local Government Elections in England and Wales shows that the position of a candidate's name on the ballot paper can have an important effect in terms of the number of votes which he receives. In particular the lower‐placed members of each party are quite seriously disadvantaged. Investigations into the relationship between this positional effect and other aspects of the election show that it occurs quite generally. A simple model is formulated which attempts to explain the phenomenon.