Education, Media Coverage, and Ballot Roll-off: Evidence from Three Ballot Measures in Mississippi

Author

Morgan AtkinsFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-8-2022

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

Political Science

First Advisor

Conor Dowling

Second Advisor

Jody Holland

Third Advisor

John M. Bruce

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

Ballot roll-off is an issue that continues to plague American society, leaving thousands of ballots incomplete every election cycle. In my research, I investigate what influences the likelihood of voters rolling off on three ballot measures in the 2020 Mississippi elections. I hypothesize that educational attainment and newspaper coverage in voters’ counties will have an impact on ballot roll-off. I observe previous research on the influences of ballot roll-off, and I combine the data I collected for voter turnout in Mississippi in 2020 and newspaper coverage of ballot measures from six sources to evaluate the influence of each of these factors individually and as variables in a regression analysis. My research finds that educational attainment is a better predictor of ballot roll-off than newspaper coverage. In my discussion and conclusion, I examine what these results mean for roll-off on ballot measures in Mississippi and the possible limitations of my research.

Recommended Citation

Atkins, Morgan, "Education, Media Coverage, and Ballot Roll-off: Evidence from Three Ballot Measures in Mississippi" (2022). Honors Theses. 2716.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2716

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.