scholarly journals Electoral Fraud and Voter Turnout: An Experimental Study

Author(s):  
Vardan Baghdasaryan ◽  
Giovanna Iannantuoni ◽  
Valeria Maggian
2019 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 203-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vardan Baghdasaryan ◽  
Giovanna Iannantuoni ◽  
Valeria Maggian

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 1089-1103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron D. Anderson ◽  
Peter J. Loewen ◽  
R. Michael McGregor

2006 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
JENS GROßER ◽  
ARTHUR SCHRAM

We study the effect of social embeddedness on voter turnout by investigating the role of information about other voters' decisions. We do so in a participation game, in which we distinguish between early and late voters. Each late voter is told about one early voter's turnout decision. Cases are distinguished where the voters are allies (support the same group) or adversaries (with opposing preferences) and where they are uncertain about each other's preferences. Our experimental results show that the social embeddedness matters: this information increases aggregate turnout by approximately 50%. The largest effect is observed for allies. Early voters strategically try to use their first mover position and late voters respond to this.


Author(s):  
Geoffrey Henderson ◽  
Hahrie Han

Abstract Seattle, Washington instituted a new “democracy voucher” program in 2017 providing each registered voter with four $25 campaign finance vouchers to contribute to municipal candidates. Prior research shows that without efforts to mobilize voters, electoral reforms like the voucher program are often insufficient to increase participation among underrepresented groups. We examine how mobilization affects the voucher program’s redistributive goals – does it increase participation among infrequent voters, or does it engage regular participants in politics? In the 2017 election cycle, we partnered with a coalition of advocacy organizations on a field experiment to estimate the effects of providing voters with information about democracy vouchers through door-to-door canvassing, texting, digital advertisements, and e-mails. While mobilization increased voucher use and voter turnout, responsiveness was greatest among frequent voters. As our findings suggest that transactional mobilizing is insufficient to engage infrequent participants, we posit that deeper organizing is necessary to fulfill the program’s redistributive goals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  

The introduction of biometric technologies (BT) in Africa’s developing democracies has raised concerns on the BT effect on voter turnout and voter confidence. Questions have also been raised about BT effectiveness as an anti-rigging and anti-fraud solution that would ensure credible elections. Through secondary and survey data, the study used Nigeria and Zimbabwe in Africa as units of analysis, as both countries have similar historical trajectory and conditions like weak institutions, reliance on international donors and the use of BT. The study discovered that at the pre-election stage, BT use enhanced election credibility as evidenced in computerized voter register and Smart Card Readers (SCR). It also discovered that at the election stage, biometric technologies served as an effective anti-rigging measure by eliminating cases of unregistered voting, ballot stuffing and multiple voting. The study further shows that the application of biometric technologies affects voters’ confidence and turn out negatively. For instance, the more biometric technologies (BM) are deployed and used in Nigeria and Zimbabwe, the modest the level of voters’ turnout (43.65% in 2015 elections and 52% 2000 elections respectively), showing the limitations of BT in resolving issues of voters’ confidence, turnout and electoral fraud in Nigeria and Zimbabwe.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés Santana ◽  
José Rama ◽  
Fernando Casal Bértoa

External shocks have been shown to be able to alter countries’ political dynamics in a deep manner. The number of works examining the impact of economic crisis, natural disasters or even terrorist attacks are numerous. However, the literature addressing the political effects of the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is still in its infancy. Definitively, the pandemic has constituted an unpredictable external shock not only affecting the health of millions around the planet but also damaging the economic and social stability of most countries. Politically, it has forced electoral authorities in some countries to postpone elections (e.g. Kiribati, North Macedonia, Sri Lanka), to suspend voting rights for those infected with the virus (e.g. Galicia and Basque Country in Spain) or to adapt postal vote regulations (e.g. Bavaria in Germany) in order to guarantee citizens’ voting rights and diminish electoral fraud. Trying to fill a lacuna in the literature, the goal of this article is to give a first and nuanced examination on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted electoral participation all over the world. To that end we have collected data on all parliamentary, presidential and regional elections held worldwide during the first seven months since the COVID-19 outbreak became recognized as a health emergency of global scope and started to affect the organization of elections (March 1st-September 30th, 2020). Our results show that while voter turnout has not generally declined in comparison with those elections held before the pandemic, electoral participation is lower in polities hit by the pandemic the most, both in terms of infections and – especially - deceases. This seems to point to the fact that when faced with a choice (civic duty vs. personal risk), the fear of becoming infected will constrain voters to opt for the former.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vardan Baghdasaryan ◽  
Giovanna Iannantuoni ◽  
Valeria Maggian

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Sarah A. Tulman

This paper addresses the paradox of voter turnout, wherein observed voting participation rates are far greater than what rational choice theory would predict. Voters face multiple voting choices, stochastic voting costs, and candidates offering different economic platforms. A combination of two approaches attempts to resolve this paradox: quantal response equilibrium (QRE) analysis, which introduces noise into the decision-making process, and the possibility of ethical (altruism-motivated) voting. A series of laboratory experiments empirically tests the predictions of the resulting model. Participants in the experiments are also given opportunities for communicating online with their immediate neighbors, in order to enhance the chances that subjects would realize the possibility of ethical voting. The results show that ethical voting occurs but gains momentum only in the presence of a vocal advocate and even then it mostly dissipated by the second half of the session. The QRE-based model was able to explain some but not all of the overvoting that was observed, relative to the Nash equilibrium prediction. There is evidence to suggest that communication via the chat feature generated some of the voting and also some of the ethical voting.


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