Abstract
In the last few decades there has been a decrease in electoral turnout in most democratic countries. It is crucial to understand why citizens do not vote. One of the many explanations for abstaining may be that voters are not offered the possibility to express dissatisfaction explicitly. The right to say no to candidates in presidential elections is vindicated and tested. A field experiment with a ballot that allows voters to vote against candidates was conducted during the 2017 French presidential elections. The experiment demonstrates that participants appreciate the additional expressive possibilities offered by the experimental ballot, in particular the possibility of casting a vote against candidates. Moreover a richer picture of the political landscape is obtained. If this ballot were used, clearer signals could be sent to political actors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alcantud, J. C. R., & Laruelle, A. (2014). The dis&approval voting: a characterization. Social Choice and Welfare, 43, 1–10.
Aleskerov, F., Yakuba, V., & Yuzbashev, D. (2007). A threshold aggregation of three-graded rankings. Mathematical Social Sciences, 53, 106–110.
Alós-Ferrer, C., & Granić, D. G. (2012). Two field experiments on approval voting in Germany. Social Choice and Welfare, 39(1), 171–205.
Balinski, M., & Laraki, R. (2007). A theory of measuring, electing, and ranking. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104, 8720–8725.
Balinski, M., & Laraki, R. (2011). Election by majority judgement: Experimental evidence. In B. Dolez, B. Grofman, & A. Laurent (Eds.), In situ and laboratory experiments on electoral law reform French presidential elections: Studies in public choice Serie 1 (Vol. 25, pp. 13–54). Springer.
Balinski, M., Laraki, R., Laslier, J.-F., Van der Straeten, K. (2003). "Le vote par assentiment: une expérience", Cahier du Laboratoire d'Econométrie de l'Ecole Polytechnique, no. 2003–13.
Baujard, A., & Igersheim, H. (2011). Framed-field experiment on approval voting and evaluation voting. Some teachings to reform the french presidential electoral system. In B. Dolez, B. Grofman, & A. Laurent (Eds.), In Situ and laboratory experiments on electoral law reform french presidential elections: Studies in public choice Serie 1 (Vol. 25, pp. 69–89). Springer.
Baujard, A., Igersheim, H., Lebon, I., Gavrel, F., & Laslier, J. F. (2013). Vote par approbation, vote par note, une expérimentation lors de l’élection présidentielle du 22 avril 2012. Revue Économique, 64, 345–356.
Baujard, A., Igersheim, H., Lebon, I., Gavrel, F., & Laslier, J. F. (2014). Who’s favored by evaluative voting? An experiment conducted during the 2012 French Presidential Election. Electoral Studies, 34, 131–145.
Damore, D. F., Waters, M. M., & Bowler, S. (2012). Unhappy, uninformed, or uninterested? Understanding “None of the Above” voting. Political Research Quarterly, 65(4), 895–907.
Darmann, A., Grundner, J., & Klamler, C. (2017). Election outcomes under different ways to announce preferences: an analysis of the 2015 parliament election in the Austrian federal state of Styria. Public Choice, 173, 201–216.
Diwakar, R. (2015). The 16th general election in India, April–May 2014. Electoral Studies, 37, 120–125.
Farvaque, E., Jayet, H., & Ragot, L. (2011). French presidential election: A field experiment on the single transferable vote. In B. Dolez, B. Grofman, & A. Laurent (Eds.), In situ and laboratory experiments on electoral law reform french presidential elections: Studies in public choice 1 (Vol. 25, pp. 55–68). Springer.
Gonzalez, S., Laruelle, A., & Solal, P. (2019). Dilemma with approval and disapproval votes. Social Choice and Welfare, 53(3), 497–517.
Heinsohn, T. (2018). Casting an invalid vote at the 2017 French presidential election. French Politics, 16, 383–399.
Igersheim, H., Baujard, A., Gavrel, F., Laslier, J. F., & Lebon, I. (2016). Individual behavior under evaluative voting: A comparison between laboratory and in situ experiments. In A. Blais, J. F. Laslier, & K. van der Straeten (Eds.), Voting experiments (pp. 257–269). Springer.
Moral, M. (2016). The passive-aggressive voter: The calculus of casting an invalid vote in European democracies. Political Research Quarterly, 69(4), 732–745.
Oresky, J., & Cech, P. (2020). Alternative voting, alternative outcomes: 2018 presidential election in the Czech Republic. Munich Social Science Review New Series, 3(2000), 113–139.
Roescu, A. (2014). Preferences, voting rules, behaviour and outcomes: A field experiment on the local elections in Romania. The Romanian Journal of Society and Politics, 9(1), 7–29.
Rothwell, J., & Samuel, H. (2017). When is the French Presidential Election 2017, how does it work and who are the candidates? [The Telegraph online]. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/french-presidential-election-2017-does-work-candidates/. Accessed 1 Sep 2020
Yılmaz, M. R. (1999). Can we improve upon approval voting? European Journal of Political Economy, 15, 89–100.
Acknowledgements
The experiment run in Allevard-les-Bains is part of the larger project “voter autrement” that realised online and in situ experiments during the 2017 French presidential election. I am very grateful to the team who accepted to take me on board, in particular A. Baujard, R. Blanch, S. Bouveret, H. Igersheim, J.F. Laslier, and I. Lebon. G. Brousseau deserves special thanks as initiator and organizator of the experiments in Crolles and Allevard-les-Bains. I also thank the 20 Allevard-les-Bains volunteers who spent large part of their sunny 23 April at the experimental voting station. The experiment would not have be possible without the generous support of Allevard-les-Bains' mayor, P. Langenieux-Villard and the staff of the city, in particular P. Gallet. The city of Crolles also contributed to the experiment by letting some voting material. Thanks to all of them the experiment was a scientific success and a great human experience. The support of the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under project PID2019-106146-I00, and of the Departamento de Educación, Política Lingüística y Cultura from the Basque Government (Research Group IT1367-19) is gratefully acknowledged. I thank E. Iñarra for her comments that helped me to shape the introduction, and the two anonymous referees for their useful comments. There is no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Laruelle, A. “Not This One”: Experimental Use of the Approval and Disapproval Ballot. Homo Oecon 38, 15–28 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41412-021-00110-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41412-021-00110-7