Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T06:04:42.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Jury Aversion and Voter Registration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

J. Eric Oliver  and
Raymond E. Wolfinger
J. Eric Oliver
Affiliation:
Princeton University
Raymond E. Wolfinger
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Election officials often say that many Americans do not register to vote for fear of being called to jury duty. The only published study on the topic claims that aversion to jury service depresses turnout by more than seven percentage points. We use questions from the 1991 National Election Studies Pilot Study to ascertain beliefs about the sources of jury lists, and we relate those impressions to registration status. We find that barely half the public professes any knowledge of how juries are chosen, and just 42% believe that they come from voter registration records. Estimations from a multivariate analysis indicate that fear of jury service accounts for less than a one percentage point drop in turnout. We discuss the implications of this finding both for reform proposals and the rational choice theory of turnout.

Type
Research Notes
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 93 , Issue 1 , March 1999 , pp. 147 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Books and Periodicals

Aldrich, John H. 1993. “Rational Choice and Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 37(02):246–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aldrich, John H. 1995. Why Parties? Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckley, Stephen. 1991. “Some in Md. Use Polling Booth Detour to Escape Jury Duty.” Washington Post, 02 17, B1.Google Scholar
Congressional Record. 1975. 94th Cong., 1st Sess., 04 15, pp. 10238–40.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Green, Donald P., and Shapiro, Ian. 1994. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Grofman, Bernard. 1993. “Is Turnout the Paradox that Ate Rational Choice Theory?” In Information, Participation, and Choice, ed. Grofman, Bernard. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Pp. 93–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, Stanley M., and Winget, Carolyn. 1992. “The Occupational Hazards of Jury Duty.” The Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 20(02):325–33.Google ScholarPubMed
Knack, Stephen. 1993. “The Voter Participation Effects of Selecting Jurors from Registration Lists.” Journal of Law and Economics 36(04):99–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riker, William H., and Ordeshook, Peter C.. 1968. “A Theory of the Calculus of Voting.” American Political Science Review 62(March): 26–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenstone, Steven J., and Wolfinger, Raymond E.. 1978. “The Effect of Registration Laws on Voter Turnout.” American Political Science Review 72(03):22–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sixel, L. M. 1996. “Workers Pressured to Shun Civic Duties.” Houston Chronicle, 10 10, B8.Google Scholar
Van Arsdale, Thomas. 1990. “Jury-Duty Fear Discourages Voter Registration.” New York Times, 09 28, A26.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry E.. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfinger, Raymond E. 1994. “The Rational Citizen Faces Election Day or What Rational Choice Theorists Don't Tell You about American Elections.” In Elections at Home and Abroad, ed. Jennings, M. Kent and Mann, Thomas E.. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Pp. 71–89.Google Scholar
Wolfinger, Raymond E., and Rosenstone, Steven J.. 1980. Who Votes? New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Warren E., Kinder, Donald R., Rosenstone, Steven J., and the National Election Studies. 1991. American National Election Study: 1990–1991 Panel Study of the Political Consequences of War/1991 Pilot Study [computer file] (Study #9673). Conducted by the Center for Political Studies of the Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan. 2d ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Center for Political Studies/Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [producers]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor].Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.