THE SWING VOTERS CURSE

We analyze two-candidate elections in which some voters are uncertain about the realization of a state variable that affects the utility of all voters. We demonstrate the existence of a swing voter's curse: les s informed indifferent voters strictly prefer to abstain rather than v ote for either candidate even when voting is costless. The swing voter 's curse leads to the equilibrium result that a substantial fraction o f the electorate will abstain even though all abstainers strictly pref er voting for one candidate over voting for another.