Régis Dandoy

Simultaneous elections (i.e. different elections that occur on the same day) have an important impact on voting patterns as they enable voters to differentiate their vote, producing an atypical voting behaviour: the so-called split-ticket vote. This phenomenon implies that the same voter “split his/her ticket” (i.e. his/her vote) between two political parties in simultaneous elections. This split-ticket voting is a common behaviour in countries with presidential elections and/or bicameral elections (upper and lower house elections). Yet, these simultaneous elections concern elections that are often located at the same level of government: the national level. The analysis of simultaneous elections across different levels of government received less scholarly attention.

This panel intends to analyse split-ticket voting behaviour in countries that organise elections at different levels of government simultaneously. The elections of 25 May 2014 present the unique opportunity to analyse split-ticket votes in different countries on the same day and for one identical election (the election for the EU Parliament), and for one election at another level of government. The rationale of the panel is to gather political scientists from different EU countries that analyse split-ticket votes, party strategies and their consequences in each national environment. In May 2014, the election for the EU Parliament will be for example simultaneously organised with local elections in England, Ireland and Greece, regional and national elections in Belgium and presidential elections in Lithuania (maybe also as well as national elections in Hungary).

We invite scholars to present their work on the different aspects related to the multi-level split-ticket voting, be it on election results as such, but also on media coverage of those elections, party strategies and positions or multi-level candidate recruitment. The panel invites scholars to present their research projects on the multi-level aspects of the 2014 elections but it also welcomes researchers that present their works on previous simultaneous elections, not only concerning previous EU elections, but also concerning a large variety of combinations of elections for different policy levels that occur on the same day, from the local to the national elections, including presidential elections and referendums.

Paper proposals (max. 250 words) have to be sent before 20 November 2013 to Régis Dandoy (rdandoy@ulb.ac.be).