Concern about ineligible voters casting ballots rises as their numbers increase the about an election in a place with one million voters, % who say that it would be a they voted in the election, eligible even though
Survey experiments also may involve randomizing specific details within a question to better understand nuances in views. For example, a report about Americans’ views about elections included a question that described a hypothetical election with 1 million voters in which one person voted even though they were not eligible to do so. Around four-in-ten Americans (41%) said this would be a “major problem.”
But the question also included a set of variations that were randomly assigned. In those versions, the number of people who were described as voting despite being ineligible to vote changed. While some people received the scenario in which one person voted despite being ineligible, others were asked about 10, 100, 1,000, or 10,000 people voting despite being ineligible.
The experiment found that 69% of U.S. adults said that 10,000 people voting despite being ineligible was a major problem, compared with 41% who said the same about one ineligible person voting. Since respondents were randomly assigned into each version of the question, these differences can be attributed to the changing information itself, not the attributes of the people who responded.
Concern about ineligible voters casting  | ballots rises as their numbers increase  | the about an election in a place with one  | million voters, % who say that it would be a  | Major problem Minor problem  | Not much of a problem  | they voted in the election, eligible even though  | they were not eligible to do though so  | 16  | 17  | 25  | 28  | 20  | 22  | 31  | 31  | 30  | 69  | 62  | 52  | 44  | 41  | 10  | 100  | 1, 000  | 10, 000  | 1  | people  | people  | people  | people  | person  | Note: No answer not shown. Respondents were randomly  | assigned to one of the experimental conditions (1, 10, 100,  | 1, 000, or 10 ,000).  | Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted Sept. 24-Oct. 7, 2018  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 