%0 Journal Article
%T Extra, Extra, (Don¡¯t) Roll
%A Carol S. Weissert
%A Kevin Fahey
%A Matthew J. Uttermark
%J State Politics & Policy Quarterly
%@ 1946-1607
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1532440018759269
%X Voters often have difficulty making choices on the myriad state constitutional amendments they vote on each year. Without partisan cues, they turn to other sources for these low-salience, high complexity measures. One such source is newspaper endorsements. In this article, we look at newspaper endorsements of ballot measures in Florida over 20 years both on ¡°no¡± votes and roll-off. We argue that endorsements¡¯ effect on ¡°no¡± votes and roll-off differs in ways not previously appreciated. Newspaper endorsements have a positive impact on no votes, as expected from the information theory of voter participation. Endorsements have little impact on roll-off, which we posit is because roll-off voters are not likely to seek information from newspapers. Thus, newspaper endorsements serve to persuade, but not entice, voters to vote for ballot measures
%K elections
%K political behavior
%K direct democracy
%K state constitutions
%K voting behavior
%K political participation
%K ballot measures
%K newspaper endorsements
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1532440018759269