Tales of Ballot Placement
Steven L. Taylor
·
Thursday, September 16, 2010
·
3 comments
For Charlie Crist, it is slot #9: Charlie Crist listed 9th on ballot for U.S. Senate
In three successful statewide elections, Charlie Crist’s name was at the top of the ballot. But as a nonpartisan candidate for the Senate, he shows up ninth in a field of 10 candidates, sandwiched between Rick Tyler and Lewis Jerome Armstrong.
Such things do, in fact, matter.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter
Per the article, there’s no real evidence that appearing first on the ballot is particularly helpful. I believe it, but I have to think that placing 9th has to hurt. I agree. This matters.
There are other studies that suggest it can matter.
Now, there will be high levels of voter information about Crist, which may mitigate the issue.
Yes there is plenty of information out there about Crist.
Like how he would run as a Republican this fall.
His changing position on issues like health care, teacher tenure.
To be honest, the choice between Rubio, Meek, and Crist is not appealing at all to me but I dislike Rubio the least.