Designing Ballots to Prevent Bias: How the Order of Candidate Names Determined Who Was Elected President

Although the 2000 U.S. elections brought into the spotlight many shortcomings of the American voting process and inspired many reform efforts, remarkably little attention has been devoted to an important aspect of ballot design that has almost certainly determined the outcome of many past elections: the order of candidates' names. Professor Jon Krosnick has been conducting research on this phenomenon for more than 10 years, documenting its existence in hundreds of elections around the country and identifying the conditions under which it is most likely to occur. Some of his newest evidence suggests that the use of touch-screens vs. punch cards vs. conventional paper ballots influences the size of the name order effect.

Jon Krosnick is the Frederic O. Glover Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of Communication, Political Science, and (by courtesy) Psychology at Stanford University. For 25 years, Dr. Krosnick has conducted research exploring how the American public's political attitudes are formed, change, and shape thinking and action. He is co-principal investigator of the American National Election Study, the nation's preeminent academic project exploring voter decision-making and political campaign effects. A world-renowned expert on questionnaire design and survey research methodology, he has conducted survey studies of Americans' attitudes in collaboration with ABC News, the Washington Post, Time magazine, and New Scientist magazine. His books include the Handbook of Questionnaire Design; Attitude Strength; Thinking about Politics; and Introduction to Survey Research, Polling, and Data Analysis. He teaches courses on survey methodology around the world at universities, for corporations, and for government agencies; testifies regularly as an expert witness in courts in the U.S. and abroad; and has served as an on-air election-night television commentator and exit poll data analyst.