Trust and Confidence in Voter Registration before

and after Experiment

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

I Am Confident I Can Fill

Out an App Correctly

Confident Most Amers

Can Fill Out App

Correctly

Trust Local Election

Officials to Process

Apps

Pre Survey

Post Survey

America’s Voter Registration ProblemJoshua M. Scacco, Juniata College

Department of Politics (Dr. Dennis Plane)

AbstractVoter registration in America is difficult. Yet, most

citizens believe the process is easy and in need of fewchanges. An experimental design using undergraduatestudents was created to measure attitudes toward the voterregistration process. The experiment included a voterregistration assignment with four scenarios designed tosimulate registering to vote under different circumstances.Changes in attitudes about the easiness of registering tovote and the trust & confidence in the registration systemwere analyzed. The results demonstrate that the studentsexposed to the voter registration process became morenegative toward registration than the control group. Afterstudents completed the experiment and were informed ofthe results, students were more likely to view registeringto vote as difficult and less likely to have trust &confidence in the process. This suggests that popularattitudes regarding the ease of registration may hideimportant problems related to the registration process.

MethodologyOne hundred ninety-six undergraduate students in

Political Science classes from Juniata College and EasternKentucky University participated in this experiment. Onehundred thirty students were placed into the experimentalgroup and 66 in the control group. All 196 students wereadministered an 85-question survey that measuredattitudes toward voter registration and voting. Attitudinalquestions were measured on a seven-point scale fromstrongly disagree to strongly agree.

The experimental group was then given a voterregistration assignment containing four scenarios andasked to find the registration applications online. The firstscenario involved a Texas citizen who lived in WashingtonD.C., but wished to register in Texas. Students had toaccurately fill in the residential address and mailingaddress where the registration card would be sent. Thesecond scenario involved a Florida resident who wastemporarily in an Arizona hospital, but wished to registerin Florida. Students had to accurately fill in a residentialaddress and mailing address to send the registration card tothe Arizona hospital. The third scenario involved eachstudent personally registering at their home, but havingtheir registration card mailed to their college address. Thefourth scenario involved each student registering at theircollege address. These last two scenarios mimic theprocedure many college students use to register to vote.

The registration forms were graded, mistakesrecorded, and the experimental group was informed of theresults. All 196 students were then given a similar postsurvey with appropriate follow-up questions to theexperiment. Attitudinal change was measured based onthe pre and post surveys.

Results & ConclusionThe two attitudinal concepts analyzed were ease of

registration and trust & confidence in the system. Theresults reveal that after the registration assignment,students were more likely to view registration as difficultand less likely to have confidence in the system. Forexample, agreement that registration is easy fell from 5.90to 4.44. When regression analysis was conducted on theease of registration, the ease of finding, understanding, andfilling out applications became significant factors inattitude change. Changes in attitudes of personal trust &confidence were influenced by views that registration washarder than originally thought, complicated, and difficult.These results suggest that common perceptions about theease of voter registration may be misguided. Whenexposed to the voter registration process, studentsresponded that the process is more difficult than perceived.The little-known difficulty of the process highlights theneed to address America’s voter registration problem.

Linear Regression Analysis – Registration “Trust and Confidence”

Explaining Change in Attitudes of Personal Trust and Confidence in Voter Registration System

* = significance at .10; ** = significance at .05; *** = significance at .01 (two-tailed tests)

Major errors: U.S. citizenship, age, ID, address, signatureMinor errors: Date, change of party, change of address, new registration

Percentage of Students Having Errors on

Registration Assignment

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Minor Errors Major Errors No Errors

4%4%3%1%Wrong Form

2%2%5%2%No Signature

13%10%22%25%Social Security or Driver’sLicense Missing

18%27%23%6%City or CountyMissing/UndeliverableAddress

5%3%2%11%Switched Mailing &Residential Address

17%9%4%3%Citizenship, Age, MentalComp Not Verified

7%5%15%6%Application Mailed toWrong Address

CollegeHomeFloridaTexasScenario

Ease of Registration before and after Experiment

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Easy to

Register

Easy to Find

Apps

Easy to

Understand

Apps

Difficult to Fill

Out

Gov’t Officials

Make Difficult Pre Survey

Post Survey

Note: Attitude change is statistically significant at the .001 level (two-tailed test). N = 118

Major Errors on Registration Assignment

Note: Attitude change for personal confidence and American confidence is statistically significant at the .001 level(two-tailed test). N = 118

Linear Regression Analysis – Registration “Ease”

Explaining Change in Attitudes that Voter Registration is Easy

* = significance at .10; ** = significance at .05; *** = significance at .01 (two-tailed tests)

118n0.271Adjusted R2

0.295R2

(0.079)-0.004Registration Assignment was Frustrating(0.080)0.182**Easy for Americans to Register to Vote(0.087)-0.168*Registration too Complicated for me to Understand(0.075)-0.201***Harder to Register than Originally Thought(0.704)-0.141Intercept

Standard ErrorCoefficient Estimate

118n

0.348Adjusted R2

0.371R2

(0.098)-0.045Registration Assignment was Confusing

(0.102)0.176*Easy to Fill Out Registration Applications Correctly

(0.113)0.252**Easy to Understand Registration Applications

(0.092)0.322***Easy to Find Registration Applications

(0.864)-4.592Intercept

Standard ErrorCoefficient Estimate