Understanding vote choice when voters have two votes

Abstract

"The paper tests a simple model of vote choice in a mixed electoral system when voters have two votes with survey data collected at the time of the 2010 North Rhine Westphalia election. We show that local candidate preferences and local chances affect only the local vote while party and leader ratings influence both votes though more strongly the list vote. Contrary to expectations, coalition preferences influence the local vote as well as the list vote. There is clearer evidence of the local vote being contaminated by the list vote than the other way around." (author's abstract)