Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/149341 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 6254
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We examine the extent to which political scandals influence trust in electoral institutions in established Western democracies. The second ballot of the 2016 Presidential election in Austria needed to be repeated because of inconsistencies in individual electoral districts (scandal districts). In particular, postal votes were counted carelessly. We use a difference-indifferences approach comparing the regular and the repeated round of the second ballot, and examine whether voter turnout, postal voting, invalid voting and the vote shares of the candidates changed in scandal districts. Postal voting declined, but the results do not show that districts with inconsistencies differ regarding voter turnout, postal voting, invalid voting, and vote shares of the candidates. Voters’ trust in electoral institutions does not seem to depend on individual failing local administrations.
Subjects: 
presidential elections
political scandals
trust
voter turnout
candidate vote share
natural experiment
JEL: 
D72
D02
Z18
P16
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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