The effect of a reduction in the opening hours of polling stations on turnout

Sebastian Garmann

Public Choice, 2017, vol. 171, issue 1, No 17, 99-117

Abstract: Abstract In recent years, scholars and policymakers alike have discussed potential causes and consequences of low voter turnout. Election administration laws may provide means to encourage turnout that are of low cost and easily implementable. In this paper, I provide a policy evaluation of a change in an election administration law. Specifically, I estimate the causal effect of a reduction in the opening hours of polling stations on turnout. To this end, I make use of a policy change in a German state that cut the number of opening hours of polling stations. Using political units from an adjacent state with the same election dates and effectively the same election system as a control group in a difference-in-differences design, I find that reducing the opening hours of polling stations significantly reduces voter turnout.

Keywords: Turnout; Polling stations; Difference-in-differences; Policy evaluation; Natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C23 D71 D72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-016-0399-3

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