Does online voting change the outcome? Evidence from a multi-mode public policy referendum

Journal article

Do online and offline voters differ in terms of what they vote for? The growth of Internet voting in recent years has opened up new channels of participation. Whether or not political outcomes change as a consequence of these new voting channels is an open question. Here we analyze all the votes cast both offline (n=5.7 million) and online (n=1.3 million) and compare the actual vote choices in a public policy referendum, the world’s largest participatory budget-ing process, in Rio Grande do Sul in June 2014. In addition to examining aggregate outcomes, we also conduct two exit polls to better understand the demographic profiles of online and offline voters. We find that vote choices of online and offline voters are no different, even though our data suggest important demographic differences between the two groups of vot-ers.

Authors: Mellon, J; Sjoberg, F; Peixoto, T

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Electoral Studies
• Volume: 47
• Pages: 13–24
• Publication date: 2017-02-21
• Acceptance date: 2016-11-30
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electstud.2017.02.006
• ISSN: 0261-3794
• Keywords: participation; voting; participatory budgeting; digital divide; internet