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Are Ballot Titles Biased? Partisanship In California's Supervision Of Direct Democracy, Christopher S. Elmendorf, Douglas M. Spencer
Are Ballot Titles Biased? Partisanship In California's Supervision Of Direct Democracy, Christopher S. Elmendorf, Douglas M. Spencer
Douglas M. Spencer
This study investigates whether and if so under what conditions the California Attorney General, who authors the ballot title and summary ("label") for statewide ballot initiatives, writes ballot language that is biased rather than impartial. State law demands an impartial label, but commentators frequently complain that the AG chooses misleading language to bolster (undermine) measures that the AG or his/her party supports (opposes). Using a convenience sample of students from several universities, we measure ordinary observers' perceptions of bias in ballot labels for initiatives dating back to 1974. Separately, we calculate an objective measure of bias using a readability algorithm. …