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<p>With increasing levels of migration, the number of external voters is rising, yet they still constitute a rather understudied group. In Switzerland, in 2023, around 11% of the population lives abroad (813,420) and about 27.4% (222,889) are citizens eligible to vote. Despite this large number, non-resident citizen voter turnout remains low—at around 20%. In this study, we seek to answer whether and how electronic voting, a new procedure that is expected to facilitate voting, contributes to the rates of external citizen voting. During the 2023 national election, non-resident citizens from three Swiss cantons (Basel-Stadt, St. Gallen and Thurgau) were allowed to vote, also, electronically. Using this natural experiment of expanding voting opportunities in only a handful of Swiss cantons and a uniquely collected survey data of over 1600 Swiss respondents located around the world; we test what is the effect of the availability of electronic voting on expatriate voter turnout. We find that e-voting has a positive effect (where e-voting is present people are likely to vote more) and that the likelihood of voting is mediated by ‘trust in the e-voting system’—for those that do trust electronic voting, the amplifying effect of e-voting on turnout is even stronger, for those that do not trust, it is negative. This finding suggests that to increase voter turnout, expanding voting opportunities and building trust in the e-voting system go hand-in-hand. Based on these results we draw several recommendations for administrations considering the adoption of electronic voting.</p>

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Getting the diaspora to vote: the role of e-voting on electoral behaviour of non-resident citizens

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月21日

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  • Peter Gerbrands,
  • Adrian Favero,
  • Ekaterina R. Rashkova

摘要

With increasing levels of migration, the number of external voters is rising, yet they still constitute a rather understudied group. In Switzerland, in 2023, around 11% of the population lives abroad (813,420) and about 27.4% (222,889) are citizens eligible to vote. Despite this large number, non-resident citizen voter turnout remains low—at around 20%. In this study, we seek to answer whether and how electronic voting, a new procedure that is expected to facilitate voting, contributes to the rates of external citizen voting. During the 2023 national election, non-resident citizens from three Swiss cantons (Basel-Stadt, St. Gallen and Thurgau) were allowed to vote, also, electronically. Using this natural experiment of expanding voting opportunities in only a handful of Swiss cantons and a uniquely collected survey data of over 1600 Swiss respondents located around the world; we test what is the effect of the availability of electronic voting on expatriate voter turnout. We find that e-voting has a positive effect (where e-voting is present people are likely to vote more) and that the likelihood of voting is mediated by ‘trust in the e-voting system’—for those that do trust electronic voting, the amplifying effect of e-voting on turnout is even stronger, for those that do not trust, it is negative. This finding suggests that to increase voter turnout, expanding voting opportunities and building trust in the e-voting system go hand-in-hand. Based on these results we draw several recommendations for administrations considering the adoption of electronic voting.