Burkhardt, Fabian and Dollbaum, Jan Matti (2026) Digital ballots, partisan bias: digital authoritarianism and support for internet voting in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. DEMOCRATIZATION, 33 (1). pp. 40-61. ISSN 1351-0347, 1743-890X
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The answer to the question of why authoritarian regimes adopt internet voting seems simple: Internet voting is yet another upgrade to the authoritarian menu of electoral manipulation by making independent verification of election results almost impossible. However, voters in authoritarian regimes are well aware of this potential for misusing technology in the service of political power. Given that partisanship often trumps concerns about democratic fairness, we argue that supporters of authoritarian leaders will support the introduction of internet voting even though (and perhaps because) it provides the leader with opportunities for manipulation. At the same time, this should only be the case if it is the leadership that promotes internet voting. If it is an opposition demand, the associations should be reversed. Based on three surveys from Russia and Belarus, including an original online survey conducted in Belarus a year after the 2020 protest movement, and three surveys from Ukraine, a competitive hybrid regime with a recent history of both electoral manipulation and anti-fraud protests, we document consistent evidence for our hypotheses that partisan allegiance is associated with attitudes to internet voting. Our findings call into question the widespread notion among researchers of democracies that voting technologies are politically neutral.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | PUBLIC-OPINION; PARTY CUES; POLICY; ONLINE; INSTITUTIONS; CONVENIENCE; PERSPECTIVE; TECHNOLOGY; DIFFUSION; DEMOCRACY; Digital authoritarianism; internet voting; incumbency advantage; partisan cues; voting technologies; political bias; hybrid regimes; Russia; Ukraine; Belarus |
| Subjects: | 900 History & geography > 940 General history of Europe |
| Divisions: | Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IESES) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 06 May 2026 08:51 |
| Last Modified: | 06 May 2026 08:51 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/66922 |
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