More than 30 percent of voters fail to complete their ballots. Don't be one of them.

Newsbeat

It seems that one of the only things Republicans and Democrats can agree on these days is a desire for this presidential election to end. Yet even though, for many, this election has felt less like an aspirational journey than a joyless slog, the amount of media attention it’s generated has one important benefit to it: Voters are informed about the two main candidates. After a bombardment of political advertising, countless hours of television coverage, and myriad newspaper articles, candidate interviews, and Facebook posts, the American people have a pretty good idea of the candidates' backgrounds and least some of their views on important policy matters. But once voters make an informed decision about the presidential election, they often scan the rest of the ballot only to be confronted with a dizzying array of people they've never heard of, running for offices they didn’t know existed until that moment. Not only will voters be asked to render an informed judgment on presidential and congressional elections, but they will be expected to do so for their state representatives, their county commissioners, their secretary of state, and an intimidatingly long list of judges. In Chicago, the average ballot has 101 candidates. In Los Angeles, there are 17 statewide ballot measures. The unspoken truth is that faced with a long ballot, unfamiliar names, and strange offices, most voters will simply guess — or leave portions of their ballot blank. Studies have found that in the absence of information, voters make decisions based on candidates’ names, gender, ethnicity, sometimes even ballot position. Researchers from the University of Virginia estimate that candidates listed first on the ballot can receive up to 5 percent more votes than candidates listed lower. More than 30 percent of voters will fail to complete their ballot. Political science professors have called this the SAT effect — when you don’t know, leave it blank. You can’t blame voters. Our ballots are long and complicated, and even astute political pundits can be flummoxed by the candidates for soil and water conservation commissioner. Luckily, there are a number of resources that can help voters make sense of their ballot and learn who these elected officials are, including state voter guides, bar association recommendations, and organization endorsements. We proudly sit on the board of a new nonpartisan voter guide called BallotReady.org that’s working to help voters get to know all the candidates on their entire ballot. Backed by the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, the National Science Foundation, and the Knight Foundation, BallotReady shows voters every race and referendum on the ballot. (You type in your address to get tailored information.) From there, voters can compare candidates based on biography, stances on issues, news articles, and endorsements. Once a voter has made a decision, she can save her choices to print at home or pull them up on her phone in the voting booth.