Vote Timing and Information Aggregation

I consider the effects of vote timing when voters possess dual motivations: to elect the better candidate and to vote for the winning candidate. I characterize equilibria for simultaneous and sequential voting in large populations and compare the quality of information aggregation within each mechanism. I relate the conclusions to U.S. presidential primaries and find they are consistent with a common conclusion about the front-loading of the primary process: that in tight elections (with no front-runner) simultaneous voting is preferred, whereas in lopsided elections sequential voting is preferred. The superior performance of sequential voting in lopsided races is precisely because bandwagons occur.