Disentangling Ballot Complexity: Effects of Different Types of Text Simplification on Metacomprehension and Roll‐Off

ABSTRACT The linguistic complexity of ballot measures impedes people's ability to participate fully in democratic processes by limiting voters’ ability to understand and act on legislation that affects their everyday lives. We conducted an ecologically grounded experiment to examine the effects of three common types of text simplification (surface readability, Plain Language, and discourse‐informed revisions) on voting behaviors. The results demonstrated that all three types of simplification increased participants’ perceived understanding (i.e., metacomprehension) and decreased roll‐off (i.e., skipping items). More specifically, ballot measures simplified with discourse theory‐informed revisions were most effective in reducing roll‐off. These results highlight opportunities for targeting multiple levels of linguistic complexity to reduce the cognitive barriers that often exclude voters from full civic participation.