ABSTRACT
Given the varying usability of paper voting and electronic voting (e-voting), this chapter assesses the impact of e-voting on voting behavior by focusing on three distinct phenomena: turnout, invalid voting and split-ticket voting. E-voting is still a recent phenomenon and remains limited to a small number of countries (mostly Brazil, India and the United States), where it often remains peripheral (for instance in Canada, France, Japan or Peru). Building on the uniqueness of the Belgian e-voting system, the chapter relies on a quasi-experimental research design. Patterns of voting behavior have been empirically studied by comparing national legislative election results in cantons using e-voting with cantons voting with paper ballots in two Belgian provinces for the period 1995–2019. Differences in party vote shares may not only be the consequence of the cantons’ sociodemographic features but also on the (higher) incentive for voters to express split-ticket votes in cantons using paper voting.
