Abstract
News media coverage on Election Day often focuses on longlines at polling places. News outlets are incentivized to cover long lines, as they make for dramatic television–despite long waits being rare. Coverage of long lines potentially deters turnout due to public perception of long wait times, reduces confidence in election administration, and undermines trust in government institutions. However, we know little about the potential deleterious effects of emphasizing longlines. Improving understanding of Election Day coverage has important implications for scholars, election officials, and journalists.
This paper has two parts: First, a systematic content analysis of television news coverage of voting on Election Day: we analyze coverage of Election Day in the 2016 and 2018 elections on six national television news networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC) plus a sample of local network news. Second, we will conduct a survey experiment in which each subject is randomly assigned to a television news story about polling place lines with a different news frame: a baseline condition with a news story unrelated to voting and treatment conditions varying the video imagery, chryons (bottom of screen text characterizing story), and reporter voiceover. We will measure attitudes about vote intention, confidence in elections, expected wait time, blame attribution for long lines, and credibility and fairness of the coverage