Journal of Power, Politics & Governance

Ballot Access Rules and the Entry of Women Candidates in State Legislative Primaries
Nathan K. Mitchell

Abstract
This study uses a novel set of data from the National Institute for Money in State Politics to understand the impact that ballot access rules have on the emergence of women candidates the state legislative primary electionsfrom 2001-2010. Most studies examine the candidacy decisionof women by studying their individual motivations and ambitious, but ignore institutional arrangements which produce potential opportunity costs and organizational costs. The data in this study clearly show that ballot access rules like signature requirements and filing fees pose undue costs on women candidates and decrease their likelihood of running for state legislative office. A binary cross sectional time series model with fixed effects is used to test hypotheses across 49 states and over 37,000 primary races.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jppg.v2n3-4a1