Election-Campaign Law

The Odd Vote Suppression Problem

By Thad Hall

It is interesting that both Democrats and Republicans keep talking about vote fraud.  In our work that was just published in the Journal of Politics, we know that voters who are less confident that their vote will be counted are less likely to vote.   One has to wonder if people on the left who keep talking about vote machines stealing votes for McCain or people on the right talking about voter registration fraud so Obama will win are actually discouraging marginal voters who support them from turning out.

Obviously, there are legal strategies behind some of this should the election be close, but inadvertently discouraging your own voters from voting could be a side affect.

Full post as published by Election Updates on October 24, 2008 (boomark / email).