| Part of the Politics series |
| Voting |
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 Politicsportal |
Voter drop-off, roll-off, or undervoting occurs when a voter selects fewer options in a contest than the maximum number allowed or makes no selection at all for a particular election. [1] Undervotes may be intentional or unintentional. [2]
Intentional undervotes arise from deliberate abstention. An individual may participate in the election but decline to support any candidate as a form of protest, or may simply choose not to vote for lower offices because they lack information or interest in downballot races. [2] For example, a voter might select a presidential candidate but abstain from a concurrent county commissioner election. [3]
Unintentional undervotes may result from poor ballot design or voter misunderstanding. For instance, a voter mistakenly marking a preference ballot by selecting the same candidate for multiple positions could lead to an undervote. [4] [2]
Undervotes, together with overvotes (where a voter selects more options than are allowed), are collectively referred to as residual votes . These are used in academic studies to assess the accuracy and reliability of voting systems in capturing voter intent. [4]
