Voting in the Dark
How do beliefs about media partisanship influence willingness to vote without information? I present theory and experimental evidence showing that beliefs about the political alignment of news media and its audience shapes whether uninformed voters decide to abstain or vote without information. In experimental elections, I find that voters cast uninformative votes more frequently when media are misaligned than when media are nonpartisan, and least when media are aligned. I find this strategic behavior primarily among Trump voters, who are 50% more likely than Harris voters to cast uninformative votes. The asymmetrically strategic behavior results in a down-ballot advantage for the candidates favored by informed Trump voters both when media are aligned and when media are misaligned.