Open Questions and Directions for Further Research

This report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the theory and evidence of how fusion could improve various aspects of electoral politics and democracy in the United States. Fusion voting has great potential as a reform that supports parties and provides voters with more choices. However, more research is needed to understand how fusion voting would play out in contemporary politics and across different contexts throughout the country. While history provides useful guides, the current moment presents unique challenges that raise many questions about how fusion voting would fare. We conclude this report by highlighting some of these pressing questions and identifying ways to advance the research agenda.

Micro-Level Questions:

• Are partisan voters willing to vote for an opposing party candidate on a different party line? Is the different party line created by a fusion ballot enough to convince voters?
• Are endorsements on the ballot line useful for voters, and how?
• What are effective ways to communicate and educate about fusion to increase public understanding and support? How can fusion education neutralize opposition and build consensus among different stakeholders?
• Does fusion voting affect partisan identity? Does it affect feelings toward other parties? Can it disrupt affective polarization?

Party-Level Questions:

• Beyond case studies, what effects does fusion voting have on policymaking? How does it impact the influence of minor parties? How can this impact be measured?
• What are the explanations for strong and effective parties? What other reforms could accompany fusion voting to strengthen parties?
• What mechanisms need to be in place to ensure accountability within parties and prevent abuse or corruption in fusion politics?
• Where and how does fusion voting moderate politicians? Where is fusion a centripetal force or a centrifugal force for politics?

System-Level Questions:

• How does fusion voting fit in with other electoral reforms like single transferable voting, ranked choice voting, and runoffs with two or more candidates?
• What are the implications of fusion voting for money in politics? Does it affect small donor financing? Does it have implications for campaign finance reform?
• What backlash could fusion voting engender, and from where? What are effective ways to combat this backlash?
• What would it take for fusion voting to serve as a gateway for further electoral reforms? What policy changes could enhance fusion voting and galvanize efforts toward a multiparty democracy?

We see several fruitful ways to answer some of these questions.

More Systematic Historical Research: Many of the arguments in favor of fusion voting are based on nineteenth-century examples of how minor parties built coalitions in support of particular issues when fusion was still allowed in most states. But what role did fusion voting play exactly? A more careful and systematic look at these cases is needed to understand if fusion voting played an instrumental role. Researchers of fusion voting can draw inspiration from empirical historical work that incorporates credible research designs to identify the effects of voting systems. For instance, Daniel Moskowitz and Jon Rogowski use a differences-in-difference design to isolate the effects of the introduction of the Australian ballot at the turn of the twentieth century and find that the new ballot design had little impact on legislator behavior and political representation.¹ A similar research design could be implemented for fusion voting, taking advantage of the staggered phase-out of fusion ballots across American states.

Survey Experiments to Understand Micro-Foundations: Arguments connecting fusion voting to political outcomes like a reduction in polarization, the emergence of moderate parties, or higher political participation make assumptions about voter behavior that have not been tested. Survey experiments can provide evidence about the micro-foundations of fusion voting—how voters behave when presented with fusion ballots. They can provide answers to questions about how often voters will choose an opposing party if given a moderate party line, what type of voter is most likely to take advantage of fusion lines, what voters infer from fusion endorsements, whether voting through a fusion line has any effect on affective polarization or satisfaction with democracy, and the utility of the vote, among many others. Moreover, surveys can help identify any confusing aspects of fusion ballots and point to possible improvements in ballot design.

More Descriptive Analysis: Further systematic descriptive work is needed on the performance of minor parties in contemporary times. We have provided some of that analysis in this report, but many areas have not been properly explored. Where do third parties obtain the most votes nationwide? How does the performance of minor parties on their fusion line interact with demographic variables? What issues are third parties emphasizing, and how do they differ from the established parties?

More Qualitative Research: Our interviews with minor party members clarified various questions about how fusion voting is used and how they perceive this electoral practice. Expanding qualitative research on fusion voting to a broader subject pool can enrich our understanding of fusion voting in practice. In particular, there is a need to include the perspectives of minor parties that do not fuse even if they are allowed to do so, minor parties on the conservative side, and major party members.

Fusion voting will give citizens more choices on the ballot and the ability to cast a more nuanced vote and political parties the opportunity to fully exercise their rights and nominate the candidates of their choosing. This alone can be reason enough to relegalize fusion voting. Whether fusion voting will have a significant impact on political outcomes, like turnout, the strength and influence of minor parties, the existence of dynamic coalitions, or polarization, is yet to be fully understood. It will take experimenting with fusion voting at the state level to know if fusion will have these effects, just as research on ranked choice voting was made possible once it was adopted in various cities and states.