MENO AKO VÝHODA? EXPERIMENTÁLNY VÝSKUM ZAMERANÝ NA EFEKT PORADIA NA LISTINE

This paper examines list order of candidates in regional elections in Slovakia. We conducted an experiment with a randomized and rotated ballot ordering. Our results show that earlier positions on the list receive significantly higher portions of votes. This effect is even more substantial for candidates without public office although it works also for public office holders. Given the alphabet ranking used in regional elections in Slovakia, our study shows that candidates with surnames starting with letters from beginning of alphabet are given unfounded advantage over their rivals. In general, our findings problematize the fairness of the analysed elections.