Information asymmetries and simultaneous versus sequential voting
By: MORTON, Rebecca B
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Contributor(s): WILLIAMS, Kenneth C.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, March 1999American Political Science Review 93, 1, p. 51-68Abstract: Sequential voting occurs when some voters make choices with knowledge of earlier decisions in the same election. Historically, voting in U.S. presidential primaries is sequential; voters in states with later primaries know the outcomes in earlier states when they make their choices, and nominees are a function of the decisions in all states. Recent events suggest, however, that voting in these primaries is becoming simultaneous. In the 1980s and 1990s states began to move their primaries closer to the beginning of the season and closer together. This "front-loading" reached a new peak in 1996, when between February 6 and March 19 there were 28 caucuses and primaries that accounted for almost two-thirds of Republican national convention delegates. The Republican nomination was settled by the middle of March, earlier than in any other race without an incumbent in U.S. history.
Sequential voting occurs when some voters make choices with knowledge of earlier decisions in the same election. Historically, voting in U.S. presidential primaries is sequential; voters in states with later primaries know the outcomes in earlier states when they make their choices, and nominees are a function of the decisions in all states. Recent events suggest, however, that voting in these primaries is becoming simultaneous. In the 1980s and 1990s states began to move their primaries closer to the beginning of the season and closer together. This "front-loading" reached a new peak in 1996, when between February 6 and March 19 there were 28 caucuses and primaries that accounted for almost two-thirds of Republican national convention delegates. The Republican nomination was settled by the middle of March, earlier than in any other race without an incumbent in U.S. history.
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