Voting for Gender Balancing? The effect of a multiple-vote system on women’s representation

Does allowing voters to choose multiple candidates foster diversity in legislative bodies? Majoritarian systems typically restrict voters to casting a ballot for one candidate, yet research suggests that permitting voters to select multiple candidates could boost the election of women and racial minorities. Despite indications of greater diversity under multiple-vote systems, voter behavior evidence remains scarce. To address this, our survey experiment varied the number of selectable candidates on a ballot in local elections. Results revealed that respondents alternated candidate genders, particularly in their second and third choices, supporting the theory that multiple voting promotes diverse representation. However, men more frequently became their first choice when multiple candidates were selectable, giving male candidates an overall advantage on the aggregate level.