IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v103y2022i7p1539-1550.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Demographic differences in understanding and utilization of ranked choice voting

Author

Listed:
  • Todd Donovan
  • Caroline Tolbert
  • Samuel Harper

Abstract

Objectives New York City is the largest U.S. jurisdiction to use ranked choice voting (RCV). We examine New York and other U.S. cities using RCV to assess if there were different levels of understanding and utilization of RCV across demographic groups. Methods We placed items on a survey conducted during the 2021 New York City RCV election that had been included in two previous surveys of different U.S. cities using RCV. Results We find higher levels of reported understanding and rates of ranking multiple candidates in NYC than in other jurisdictions. We find no systematic differences by race/ethnicity in terms of reported understanding of RCV in NYC or the other samples. We also find no systematic association between age and reported understanding of RCV. Respondents with more education were more likely to report understanding RCV in each sample. People of color were less likely to report ranking multiple mayoral candidates in NYC and California, and respondents with more education were more likely to report ranking in two samples. Conclusions Apart from these important differences in utilization, our search for race/ethnic differences largely produced null results, suggesting RCV may not produce bias in who engages with it.

Suggested Citation

  • Todd Donovan & Caroline Tolbert & Samuel Harper, 2022. "Demographic differences in understanding and utilization of ranked choice voting," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(7), pages 1539-1550, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:103:y:2022:i:7:p:1539-1550
    DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.13215
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13215
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ssqu.13215?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Engstrom, Richard L. & McDonald, Michael D., 1981. "The Election of Blacks to City Councils: Clarifying the Impact of Electoral Arrangements on the Seats/Population Relationship," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 344-354, June.
    2. Donald Horowitz, 2004. "The alternative vote and interethnic moderation: A reply to Fraenkel and Grofman," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 507-517, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adam Graham-Squire & David McCune, 2023. "An Examination of Ranked Choice Voting in the United States, 2004-2022," Papers 2301.12075, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2023.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marcus Ogren, 2023. "Candidate Incentive Distributions: How voting methods shape electoral incentives," Papers 2306.07147, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2024.
    2. Nenad Stojanović & Matteo Bonotti, 2020. "Political Parties in Deeply Multilingual Polities: Institutional Conditions and Lessons for the EU," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 599-615, May.
    3. Sass, Tim R & Mehay, Stephen L, 1995. "The Voting Rights Act, District Elections, and the Success of Black Candidates in Municipal Elections," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(2), pages 367-392, October.
    4. Jon Fraenkel & Bernard Grofman, 2007. "The merits of Neo-Downsian modeling of the alternative vote: A reply to Horowitz," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 1-11, October.
    5. Donald Horowitz, 2007. "Where have all the parties gone? Fraenkel and Grofman on the alternative vote – yet again," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 13-23, October.
    6. Carolyn Abott & Asya Magazinnik, 2020. "At‐Large Elections and Minority Representation in Local Government," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(3), pages 717-733, July.
    7. Evan Mast, 2020. "Warding Off Development: Local Control, Housing Supply, and NIMBYs," Upjohn Working Papers 20-330, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    8. Adedokun, Ayokunu, 2017. "Post-conflict peacebuilding: A critical survey of the literature and avenues for future research," MERIT Working Papers 2017-016, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Gary Miller, 1985. "Progressive reform as induced institutional preferences," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 163-181, January.
    10. Joseph Ornstein & Robert Norman, 2014. "Frequency of monotonicity failure under Instant Runoff Voting: estimates based on a spatial model of elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 1-9, October.
    11. Melissa J. Marschall & Anirudh V. S. Ruhil & Paru R. Shah, 2010. "The New Racial Calculus: Electoral Institutions and Black Representation in Local Legislatures," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 107-124, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:103:y:2022:i:7:p:1539-1550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.