Split Ticket Voting and IssueElections.

Split ticket voting has long been of interest to students of voting behavior. Understanding these voters is particularly challenging because they appear to be ideologically inconsistent and to be casting their votes based on a variety of other factors. The study of split ticket voting, to date, has focused on candidate elections. However, ballot issues also allow voters to make ideologically inconsistent choices that could be described as split ticket voting. Understanding split ticket ballot issue voting is useful in several ways. First, a significant body of research has developed around ballot issues and this research will add to that literature. Second, this research adds another piece to the puzzle of ideologically inconsistent voters. Third, there is a growing profession among campaign consults who focus on ballot issue campaigns. This research will add to their knowledge of how voters react when multiple issues are on the ballot. To better understand the dynamics of split ticket voting on ballot issues this research uses a unique methodology (one that may no longer be available once electronic voting becomes the norm). It examines actual ballots of voters to identify split ticket voting. These data were combined with probability voting models to examine the variation is split ticket ballot issue voting in three communities. The research will compare an ideological model with an information processing model to determine which provides the better fit. Data for this project have been collected and the analysis is underway. The results should provide a clearer picture of issue election voting and suggest implications for candidate based split ticket theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]