From 89.3 KPCC:
Many election experts believe that appearing higher on a paper ballot can increase a candidate's or law's chance of passing as fickle voters lose interest and their eyes move farther down the ballot. Associate professor of political science at UC Irvine, Carole Uhlaner, said she does not believe the order of ballot proposals on the voting ticket matters. She acknowledged that "order matters" when dealing with candidate races because many voters will "drop off" -- or suffer from voter fatigue -- and tire when looking at a long list of names. However, Uhlaner asserts the phenomenon of drop off does not apply to ballot propositions in the same way. "When you're dealing with propositions, people aren't picking out of the ten or twelve propositions, they're looking at it and they're voting yes or no," she said. "It's a completely different dynamic."

Audio link available at:
http://www.scpr.org/programs/patt-morrison/2012/07/12/27379/jerry-brown-...