The latest issue of Election Administration Reports notes that Nevada had only 38 statewide undervotes for President. It attributes the extraordinarily small number to a “None of the Candidates” option, which garnered 3,688 vote (0.44 percent of all voters).
No doubt, the None of the Candidates option is part of the story of low undervotes, but there may be another. Nevada used electronic voting this election. It may be that electronic voting itself spurs people to choose a candidate who otherwise would have deliberately abstained from voting. This is an understudied subject that needs more attention.
Consider the statistics Michael McDonald gathered on undervoting in the California recall election on the question whether or not Governor Davis should be recalled (paper available here, table on page 5):
Self-reports of non-voting through exit polls: 2.6%
Statewide undervote rate: 4.7%
Punch card county undervote rate: 7.2%
Optical scan undervote rate: 2.8%
DRE: 1.4%
Consider especially the contrast on this question in the undervote rate between Alameda County, using touch screens (0.74%) with L.A. County, using punch cards (just under 9%). These statistics don’t prove that electronic voting causes deliberate undervoters to vote, but it is worth further examination. (On the legal problems created by punch card voting disparities, see my earlier analysis.)
If, indeed, the method of voting by touch screen encourages people to choose a candidate who otherwise would abstain, should anything be done about it?