[EL] Media-vote suppression

[Hess, Doug]

This is an interesting question. I don’t know if it has been studied. The reverse question--if you think an election is close, are you more likely to vote?--might also be worth thinking about. The dynamics may not be symmetrical however. However, if campaigns think an election is close in a jurisdiction, they are likely to put more resources into it which can lead to greater turnout, so it becomes complex (in a classic social science way) issue to study.

Douglas R Hess
Assistant Professor of Political Science
On research leave for Fall Semester 2016.
http://www.douglasrhess.com<http://www.douglasrhess.com/>

Grinnell College
1210 Park Street, Carnegie Hall #309
Grinnell, IA 50112
phone: 641-269-4383


From: joseph.e.larue [mailto:joseph.e.larue at gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, November 12, 2016 8:42 AM
To: Election Law Listserve <law-election at department-lists.uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] Media-vote suppression

Has anyone given any thought, or seen any surveys, on what effect the media might have had on the Democratic vote? For several weeks leading up to the election, much of the media was proclaiming a big Clinton win. I'm wondering whether that might have suppressed the Democratic vote, by causing some Democrats to feel that their vote was not really needed and so helping them decide to skip the lines on Election Day. Just wondering if anyone has seen any surveys of voters that might indicate that type of effect.



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