28 November 2016

Recommended reading on low turnout elections

Yesterday, I drew your attention to Sen. Diane Sands’ request for a bill that would allow municipalities to cancel uncontested elections. Sands’ is a singularly bad idea, but it may enjoy some popularity among officials and citizens who see every issue through a beancounter’s lens.

Today, some recommended reading on the subject of low turnout elections, and why they are supported by some organized groups.

• Timing and Turnout: How Off-Cycle Elections Favor Organized Groups. By Sarah Anzia, assistant professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Published 3 December 2013. Based on her doctoral dissertation.


• When Democrats Support Low-Turnout Elections. By Ed Kilgore, then writing for the Washington Monthly. Published 3 November 2015.


• How Democrats Suppress The Vote. By Eitan Hersch, at FiveThirtyEight. Published 3 November 2015, eight hours before Kilgore wrote his post.


• Off-Cycle Elections and the Parties. By Seth Masket, at the Washington Monthly. Published 18 August 2014.