The heterogeneous effects of internet voting

Alberto Ciancio and Fabrice Kampfen

European Journal of Political Economy, 2023, vol. 79, issue C

Abstract: A decline in voter turnout over the last decades has prompted governments to introduce technological innovations for voting. This paper studies the heterogeneous effects of internet voting on voter turnout and vote shares in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. Exploiting across-time and across-municipalities variations during the introduction of internet voting between 2006 and 2013, we find that internet voting increased the turnout of individuals aged 80 and above, particularly of male voters, but did not have any effects on younger individuals. As a result, the vote share of adults aged 80+ relatively increased following the introduction of internet voting. Overall, our study shows that although internet voting does not appear to have an effect on general turnout, it has reweighted the political power of some sociodemographic groups, giving more weight to males and older adults.

Keywords: Internet voting; Electoral turnout; Electoral participation; Vote shares; Switzerland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 D72 O33 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:poleco:v:79:y:2023:i:c:s0176268023000885

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2023.102444

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