Assessing the Impact of E-Voting Technologies on Electoral Outcomes: an Analysis of Buenos Aires’ 2005 Congressional Election

Abstract

Using data from an e-voting experiment conducted in the 2005 Congressional Election in Argentina, we estimate the effect of different e-voting technologies on the likelihood that citizens cast their vote for different parties for the National Congress and the Legislature of Buenos Aires. Our results indicate that voters are extremely receptive to the information cues provided by the different voting technologies and associated ballot designs, and that particular voting devices have a significant impact on voter choice, systematically favouring some parties to the detriment of others. We conclude that the choice of alternative electronic voting devices might have considerable effect on electoral outcomes in multi-party electoral systems.