IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejapp/v12y2020i1p61-85.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Precinct Too Far: Turnout and Voting Costs

Author

Listed:
  • Enrico Cantoni

Abstract

I study the effects of voting costs—specifically, distance to polling location—using geographic discontinuities. Opposite sides of boundaries between voting precincts are observationally identical, except for their assigned polling locations. This discontinuous assignment produces sharp changes in voters' travel distance to cast their ballots. In nine municipalities in Massachusetts and Minnesota, a 1 standard deviation (0.245 mile) increase in distance reduces ballots cast by 2 to 5 percent across four elections. During non-presidential elections, effects are three times larger in high-minority areas than in low-minority areas. Finally, I simulate the impact of various counterfactual assignments of voters to polling places.

Suggested Citation

  • Enrico Cantoni, 2020. "A Precinct Too Far: Turnout and Voting Costs," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 61-85, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:12:y:2020:i:1:p:61-85
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20180306
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20180306
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20180306.data
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20180306.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20180306.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/app.20180306?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
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Angela Cools, 2020. "Parents, Infants, and Voter Turnout," Working Papers 20-04, Davidson College, Department of Economics.
    2. Kelly, Andrea & Lindo, Jason M. & Packham, Analisa, 2020. "The power of the IUD: Effects of expanding access to contraception through Title X clinics," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    3. Zhizheng Zhang & Wentao Wei & Tianlu Zhu & Ming Zhou & Yajun Li, 2022. "New Dimension on Quality of Life Differences among Older Adults: A Comparative Analysis of Digital Consumption in Urban and Rural Areas of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-23, November.
    4. Enrico Cantoni & Vincent Pons, 2021. "Strict Id Laws Don’t Stop Voters: Evidence from a U.S. Nationwide Panel, 2008–2018," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(4), pages 2615-2660.
    5. Ben Blemings & Margaret Bock, 2020. "Disamenity or a Signal of Competence? The Empirical Political Economy of Local Road Maintenance," Working Papers 20-07, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    6. Mariella Gonzales & Gianmarco León-Ciliotta & Luis R. Martínez, 2022. "How Effective Are Monetary Incentives to Vote? Evidence from a Nationwide Policy," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 293-326, January.
    7. LeRoy, William, 2024. "Understanding policing in the aftermath of gun violence: Examining investigatory stops and crime in Chicago," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    8. Bowles, Jeremy & Larreguy, Horacio & Woller, Anders, 2020. "Information Versus Control: The Electoral Consequences of Polling Place Creation," IAST Working Papers 20-113, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST).
    9. Marco Frank & David Stadelmann & Benno Torgler, 2023. "Higher turnout increases incumbency advantages: Evidence from mayoral elections," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 529-555, July.
    10. Billings, Stephen B. & Braun, Noah & Jones, Daniel B. & Shi, Ying, 2024. "Disparate racial impacts of Shelby County v. Holder on voter turnout," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    11. Schreiner, Nicolas, 2021. "Changes in Well-Being Around Elections," Working papers 2021/03, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    12. Marco Frank & David Stadelmann & Benno Torgler, 2020. "Electoral Turnout During States of Emergency and Effects on Incumbent Vote Share," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-10, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    13. Schmidt, Adam & Albert, Laura A., 2022. "Designing pandemic-resilient voting systems," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    14. Billings, Stephen B. & Braun, Noah & Jones, Daniel & Shi, Ying, 2022. "Disparate Racial Impacts of Shelby County v. Holder on Voter Turnout," IZA Discussion Papers 15829, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Kyle Raze, 2022. "Voting rights and the resilience of Black turnout," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1127-1141, July.
    16. Jean-Victor Alipour & Valentin Lindlacher, 2022. "No Surprises, Please: Voting Costs and Electoral Turnout," CESifo Working Paper Series 9759, CESifo.
    17. Sylvia Klosin, 2021. "Automatic Double Machine Learning for Continuous Treatment Effects," Papers 2104.10334, arXiv.org.
    18. Oliver Engist & Felix Schafmeister, 2022. "Do political protests mobilize voters? Evidence from the Black Lives Matter protests," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 193(3), pages 293-313, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

    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:aea:aejapp:v:12:y:2020:i:1:p:61-85. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    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.