Communication and Voting in Multi-party Elections: An Experimental Study

We investigate communication and costly voting in multi-party election experiments. Turnout is consistently lower across electorate communication as compared with restricted communication within parties. Voters are more likely to choose the strategic voting option at the outset in restricted communication but more likely to start deliberation by stating their first preference when unrestricted. Distributions of earnings are more inequitable when communication is restricted and the candidate preferred by the minority of voters is more likely to win. We also find that even restricted communication significantly increases participation and strategic voting by swing voters, above and beyond induced identity effects.