Should I stay or should I go? Polling station lines, voter turnout, and democratic equality
.jpg)
Michael Folmer/Mostphotos
That all voters have fair and equal opportunities to cast their votes is a cornerstone of democracy. This project aims to investigate how polling station lines and other factors related to election administration impact voter turnout. Of particular importance is examining whether these factors disproportionately affect the participation of certain groups of voters, which potentially could jeopardise democratic equality.
Details
- Period: 2025-01-01 – 2028-12-31
- Budget: 6,402,000 SEK
- Funder: Swedish Research Council
Description
The Swedish electoral system is generally perceived to meet high international standards in facilitating equal political participation throughout the electorate. Voter turnout is also very high in international comparison. However, the 2022 general elections saw large and unprecedented problems with long lines at many polling stations. The researchers in this project have also in a recent study showed that the lines indeed negatively impacted voter turnout in affected electoral precincts.
Research leader Marcus Österman says:
Despite that polling station lines are common in democracies, our knowledge about their effects on turnout is surprisingly limited in international research. In this project, we hope to provide new insights into how lines and other obstacles at polling stations affect voters' ability to participate on equal terms.
Against this backdrop, this project aims to provide new insights into whether and how an increased cost of voting due to long lines at polling stations discourage voters from participating in elections. More broadly, the project addresses how electoral administration and institutions that increases the cost of voting—for instance by making it more time consuming—affect voter turnout. An important focus of the project is to study how these effects on electoral participation may vary across different groups of voters, potentially threatening democratic equality.
The project builds on two empirical approaches: one utilising registry data for the study of voter turnout in Sweden, and another leveraging a cross-national survey for the study of how the effects of an increased cost of voting differ across electoral institutions and national norms regarding turnout.