Electoral reforms rejected: Partisan cues in an anti-party context

Abstract

Proposals to change how parties functioned in elections appeared on several American states’ ballots in 2024, often bundling nonpartisan primaries (NPPs) with ranked choice voting (RCV). Given the complexity of the proposals, voters faced a difficult task and may have relied on cues from campaigns when voting. We conducted a post-election survey to measure recalled exposure to campaigns and cues and model the role of cues in voting on these proposals. We find voters made choices consistent with partisan cues they report being exposed to. Democrats recalling Democratic elites were in favor were more supportive. Republicans who recalled a co-partisan elite being opposed were more likely to be opposed. We also used a survey experiment that manipulated exposure to partisan cues to test for effects of cues on support for NPPs and found results that corroborate what we observed with our self-reported survey data. Thus, even in an environment of mass anti-party sentiment, we find rules changes affecting parties may be difficult to pass via ballot measures when there is insufficient support among dominant party elites.