Long Ballots Reduce Voter Turnout

The costs of voting are not only administrative and logistical – they are also embedded in the choices that voters are asked to make. I argue that when elections ask voters to evaluate more choices, some individuals will abstain from the voting process entirely. Using individual-level turnout and ballot length data from eight California counties across three election cycles in difference-in-differences design, I find that five to six additional contests reduce voter turnout by 1% (pp), on average. These effects are stronger among younger individuals and those living in lower-education census tracts. Contests with high levels of roll-off among voters are most likely to dissuade citizens from returning a ballot. These results show that task of evaluating candidates and contests is itself a barrier to electoral participation.