Voter fatigue
In political science, voter fatigue is a cause of voter abstention which result from the electorates of representative democracies being ask to vote often.[1] Voter fatigue can be exacerbated by subtler forms of disenfranchisement that make voting more difficult.
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Causes
According to the traditional understanding of the concept, voter fatigue arises when citizens are asked to vote too often.[1][2] Voter fatigue can be contributed to by a psychological phenomenon known as decision fatigue. As this suggests, our brain becomes mentally fatigued after making numerous decisions, so it will attempt to make shortcuts to decrease the workload. As decision fatigue increases, more voters abstain.[3] This can result in lower voter turnout rates.[2]
Combating voter fatigue
Some of the methods proposed to combat voter fatigue include:
- Consolidate the number of elections, especially off-year elections.[1][4][5]
- Guard against long and complex ballots.[4]
- Use sortition (e.g. citizens' juries) instead of elections for some decisions.[6]
- Make voting easier.
- Experiment with incorporating aspects of E-democracy, proxy voting and delegated voting.
Examples
In the run-up to the 2019 UK General Election, it was suggested by some media outlets that the electorate might be altered by abstention from voter fatigue from the third General Election in little over 4 years, having seen one in 2015 and the snap election of 2017, either side of the 2016 EU Membership Referendum.[7]
In Israel, five snap elections from 2019-2022 has led to concerns about voter fatigue.[8]
See also
- Donor fatigue, increased apathy about giving to charitable or humanitarian causes
- Off-year election
References
- Kostelka, Filip; Krejcova, Eva; Sauger, Nicolas; Wuttke, Alexander (1 June 2023). "Election Frequency and Voter Turnout" (PDF). Comparative Political Studies. doi:10.1177/00104140231169020. S2CID 259062350.
- Demsas, Jerusalem (21 August 2023). "Americans Vote Too Much". The Atlantic. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- "Choice Fatigue And The 'Decision To Decide'".
- Demsas, Jerusalem (21 August 2023). "Americans Vote Too Much". The Atlantic. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- Hersh, Eitan (3 November 2015). "How Democrats Suppress The Vote". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- Anthony, Andrew (18 July 2016). "Against Elections: The Case for Democracy by David Van Reybrouck – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 September 2023.
- correspondent, Kate Proctor Political (26 October 2019). "Voters' disillusionment renders expected election tough to call". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
- Kavaler, Tara (23 March 2021). "A Quiet Election Day in Israel as Voter Fatigue Dampens Turnout". The Media Line. Retrieved 2 July 2022.