Voter Decision Affected by Polling Place, Study Finds

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: National Geographic

Researchers in a new study found voters were more likely to approve a school-funding initiative if they were assigned to cast their ballot at a school.

Numerically the effect was small: In the precincts analyzed, the initiative earned 2 percent more votes at schools than it did from voters assigned to churches, community centers, and other locations.

But "it's big in sense that it would be big enough to tip the scales in a close election," said study leader Jonah Berger, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

For example, in 2000, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 0.009 percent of the votes officially counted in Florida to win the U.S. presidency.



Read more: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080623-polling-places_2.html

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Interesting study. Although the authors caution that more study is needed, this raises a lot of fascinating questions: Would voting at a church effect church/state separation issues (or abortion rights)? How does voting at a "senior center" affect the voting? What would be the most "neutral" place to hold elections?

[LeftyMom]

1. The polling place by my Dad's house is in one of his neighbors' garage.

It's a little chilly in an unheated garage with the door up in November, but they bring the coffee machine out and provide snacks. The lady of the house says that way she knows she can get her family to clean out the garage every few years, at least, and they meet their neighbors.

As a poll worker, I once spent the day running a polling place in the lobby of a car dealership.

So neutral sites can be had, it just takes a little more looking.

[msongs]

2. NO voting places in churches EVER - violation of seperation of church and state nt

[xioaping]

3. All you are doing is voting. Don't go overboard n/t

[Virginian]

4. Oh No!

My polling place is in the cafeteria of a school that is rented out to a group to use as a church on Sundays! How can we ever select the right choices on election day?!?!?!

Never mind, we have voting machines that will make the choices for us. Whew, what a relief.


:sarcasm:

[xioaping]

8. Oh No HiYo

My polling place is in a community center and someone actually walked in wearing a cross necklace.

I'm so worried someone will spend like hundreds of millions of dollars to try and influence me and then of all things, someone is allowed to wear a cross in the polling place.

They got rid of the electronic voting machines and use paper ballots now so we have even less protection that you.

[Demit]

7. Where would you suggest they be?

What kind of space is available once every 6 months/once a year, on a weekday from 6am to about 8pm, that can accommodate 2 voting machines, a table for poll workers, and a line of people waiting to vote? In every precinct or neighborhood of about a 6-block radius? It would have to be accessible to the elderly & infirm, and it would be good if you could count on it year after year, so voters got used to where their polling place was. It's a matter of logistics. We have need for about 1200 polling places in the city of Philadelphia. Can you help us find 1200 buildings that meet these practical requirements?

[sandnsea]

5. I vote in my living room

If there are any surprises, I can get online and get all my questions answered. It's the only way.

[Liberty Belle]

6. Couldn't this just mean that this precinct has a lot of parents

with kids in school? As opposed to, say, a precinct in an older neighborhood with mostly senior citizens?

Om the other hand, if this theory proves true in larger studies, it raises some interesting possibilities. Perhaps we should have polling places in peace centers and military cemeteries to boost support for anti-war candidates, wind energy farms and parks to up the environmental votes, etc. Oh, and make those pro-lifers who think forced parenthood is terrific stand in long voting lines in the noisest daycare centers we can find.