1 Electoral Institutions and the Manifestation of Bias: The Effect of the Personal Vote on the Representation of Women Dr. Melody Ellis Valdini mev@pdx.edu Department of Political Science Portland State University ABSTRACT: Many scholars have discussed the consequences of the personal vote on the behavior of legislators, yet little scholarship has been devoted to the effect of the personal vote on the success of women candidates. Using a multi-method approach that includes both regression analysis as well as the results of an original voting experiment performed in the United States and Canada, I find that there is no consistent effect of this electoral institution on the legislative representation of women. Instead, I argue and demonstrate a conditional effect of the personal vote: in cultural contexts of bias, or if a voter is biased against women leaders, the personal vote will have a negative effect on the legislative success of women. Without that cultural context or biased voter, however, the personal vote can have a neutral or even positive effect on representation of women. Prepared for Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Portland, OR, March 22-25, 2012. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: I am grateful to Shaun Bowler, Richard Clucas, David Kinsella, Arthur Lupia, Melody Rose, Matthew Shugart, and Jessica Trounstine for helpful comments and suggestions on the experiment and/or paper. In addition, many thanks to Mark Henkels and Kelsey Wells for assistance in accessing and coordinating experiment participants, as well as to the many professors who graciously donated class time in the name of science. Thank you to Heidi Busche for outstanding research assistance. And finally, I owe the greatest debt of gratitude to Benjamin Nyblade- his generous help was critical to the improvement of this project. This research was supported by a Hatfield Public Service Grant and a PSU Faculty Enhancement Grant.