Information Distortion and Voting Choices: The Origins and Effects of Factual Beliefs in Initiative Elections Chris Wells Department of Communication, University of Washington Justin Reedy Department of Communication, University of Washington John Gastil Department of Communication, University of Washington Carolyn Lee Department of Political Science, University of Washington To account for voter decision making in initiative elections, we integrate theory and research on public opinion, misinformation, and motivated reasoning. Heuristic and moti- vated reasoning literatures suggest that voters’ preexisting values interact with political sophistication such that politically knowledgeable voters develop systematically distorted empirical beliefs relevant to the initiatives on their ballots. These beliefs, in turn, can predict voting preferences even after controlling for underlying values, regardless of one’s political sophistication. These hypotheses were tested using a 2003 voter survey conducted prior to a statewide initiative election that repealed a workplace safety regulation. Results showed that only those voters knowledgeable of key endorsements had initiative-specific beliefs that lined up with their underlying antiregulation values. Also, voters’ empirical beliefs had an effect on initiative support even after controlling for prior values, and political sophistication did not moderate this effect. KEY WORDS: Heuristic processing, Initiative elections, Misinformation, Motivated reasoning, Political sophistication, Public opinion Political Psychology, Vol. 30, No. 6, 2009 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2009.00735.x 953 0162-895X © 2009 International Society of Political Psychology Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, and PO Box 378 Carlton South, 3053 Victoria Australia