Do voting advice applications have an effect on electoral participation and voter turnout ? : Evidence from the 2007 Swiss Federal Elections

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_2A2B98181EF8
Type
Inproceedings: an article in a conference proceedings.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Do voting advice applications have an effect on electoral participation and voter turnout ? : Evidence from the 2007 Swiss Federal Elections
Title of the conference
Electronic Participation : Second IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, ePart 2010, Lausanne, Switzerland, August 29-September 2, 2010 : Proceedings
Author(s)
Ladner A., Pianzola J.
Publisher
Springer
ISBN
9783642151576 (Print)
9783642151583 (Online)
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2010
Editor
Tambouris E., Macintosh A., Glassey O.
Series
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
Pages
211-224
Language
english
Abstract
Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) render a valuable platform for tackling one of democracy's central challenges: low voter turnout. Studies indicate that lack of information and cost-benefit considerations cause voters to abstain from voting. VAAs are online voting assistance tools which match own political preferences with those of candidates and parties in elections. By assisting voters in their decision-making process prior to casting their votes, VAAs not only rebut rational choice reasoning against voting but also narrow existing information gaps. In this paper we examine the impact of VAAs on participation and voter turnout. Specifically, we present results on how the Swiss VAA smartvote affected voter turnout in the 2007 federal elections. Our analyses suggest that smartvote does have a mobilizing capacity, especially among young voters who are usually underrepresented at polls. Moreover, the study demonstrates how VAAs such as smartvote do affect citizen's propensity to deal with politics in general.
Keywords
e-democracy, voter turnout, electoral participation, Voting Advice Applications (VAAs)
Open Access
Yes
Create date
05/03/2014 11:51
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:09
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