Alphabetical Voting: A Study of the 1973 General Election in the Republic of Ireland. General Research Series Paper No. 71, June 1973

Walsh, Brendan M. and Robson, Christopher (1973) Alphabetical Voting: A Study of the 1973 General Election in the Republic of Ireland. General Research Series Paper No. 71, June 1973. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

IT is popularly believed that the requirement in Irish elections that candidates’ names be printed in alphabetical order on the ballot paper results in a bias against those whose surnames begin with the later letters of the alphabet. One journalist recently went so far as to assert that "the spelling of a candidate’s name has in many cases been almost as important as his politics in ensuring success at the polls;’? On the other hand, the importance and even the existence of such a bias has been questioned. The issue was debated at some length in D~iil t~ireann in connection’ with the Electoral Bill, 1962, when an Amendment to randomise the ballot paper was withdrawn after a discussion in the course of which little empirical evidence was advanced.~ One authority on electoral systems concluded that "in the Irish constituencies the initial letter of a candidate’s name has . . . only a trifling effect on his chance of election".3 It is also notable that political analysts very rarely mention alphabetical bias in any detailed discussion of an election. The purpose of the present study is to assess whether an important alphabetical bias can be shown to exist and, if so, to explore the exact mechanisms by which it operates.

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