What's in a name? For candidates for Anchorage municipal office, the question could be an important one. The Anchorage municipal clerk's office is tasked with setting the order of the names voters will see when they head to the polls April 1. The six seats up for grabs on the Anchorage Assembly will be listed in numerical order by district. But how do the clerks decide which names will be listed first for each seat? The answer came Thursday afternoon in the form of a plastic cup and 26 scrabble tiles.
Anchorage municipal code requires the clerk's office to randomize the order of names appearing for each contested position on the ballot. On Thursday, that meant deputy municipal clerk Amanda Moser and her boss, Barbara Jones, had to draw scrabble tiles from a cup to determine a "randomized alphabet." The order came out looking like, well, a bunch of scrambled scrabble letters, with the letter "R" first and the letter "C" last. The randomized alphabet will be used to set the order on the ballot for each seat.
That means if one candidate has a last name beginning with the letter "R" he or she would be listed on the ballot above someone with a last name that begins with another letter. (If both candidates have last names that begin with the same letter, the second letter of the name is checked, and so on.) But does it really matter who is listed first?
It may, especially for the upcoming April municipal election. Research done by the Northwest University School of Management shows that one in every 10 elections is decided solely by which candidate was listed first on the ballot. But why?
Theories vary and, believe it or not, the subject has been the focus of dozens of research papers over the years. Most who have studied the issue claim busy voters usually mark the first name that appears for each contested political position, especially if they are choosing from a list of candidates with little or no name recognition. The impact of being first is minimized for well-known candidates (like national and statewide politicians) and increased for local offices and nonpartisan elections. The Anchorage municipal elections are both local and nonpartisan, meaning the candidates do not declare a party affiliation.
Quantifiable or not, there does seem to be an advantage to being first in a ballot, which is why elections officials chose position by randomizing the alphabet and comparing candidates' last names. But in an age of technology and easy-to-access apps, why Scrabble tiles? Why not use a computer?
"You could," Moser said. "But it wouldn't be as fun, would it?"
Contact Sean Doogan at sean@alaskadispatch.com.