Free or fair elections? The introduction of electronic voting in Brazil

Schneider, Rodrigo (2020) Free or fair elections? The introduction of electronic voting in Brazil. Economía, 21 (1). 73 - 99. ISSN 1529-7470

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Abstract

This paper studies the phased-in introduction of electronic voting in Brazil to disentangle the effects of free and fair elections on politicians’ responsiveness to voters’ demands. The new technology improved voters’ access, particularly for less educated ones, to legislative elections, and it undercut the election fraud that had previously occurred with paper ballots during the vote count (that is, votes were added to tabulation sheets after voting had ended). At the same time, the new technology increased the relative appeal of voter fraud via ballot stuffing (that is, when voters illegally vote more than once). I find that municipalities using electronic rather than paper ballots experienced larger increases in the number of registered voters, suggesting an increase in ballot stuffing. I also find that enfranchisement biased toward low-income voters does not necessarily lead to an increase in public spending. Results suggest that election fairness is a complementary condition to guarantee electoral accountability.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://economia.lse.ac.uk/
Additional Information:	© 2020 LACTEA
Divisions:	LSE
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General)
JEL classification:	H - Public Economics > H4 - Publicly Provided Goods > H41 - Public Goods H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H51 - Government Expenditures and Health H - Public Economics > H7 - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations > H75 - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D72 - Economic Models of Political Processes: Rent-Seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
Date Deposited:	03 Jul 2024 15:36
Last Modified:	14 Sep 2024 10:01
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/123146

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