Hur hemlig är valhemligheten?

Rapport från en studie av förtidsröstning i Göteborg 2022

Abstract

How Secret is Voting Secrecy in Swedish Elections – A Study of Advance Voting in the 2022 Elections

This paper is about voters’ perceptions of voting secrecy in the 2022 Swedish elections. In collaboration with the local election authorities in Gothenburg, we have asked a large number of advance voters (n = 12901) about perceived voting secrecy under three types of voting arrangements. In the high secrecy arrangement, voters completed voting behind a single closed screen. In two medium secrecy arrangements, voters selected ballot papers behind a closed screen and walked a few meters with ballot papers in hand to another closed screen to complete the vote. Results show that perceived voting secrecy is high in all three arrangements, but also that the high secrecy arrangement makes a statistically significant contribution to perceived voting secrecy. The findings illustrate that voters are sensitive to small changes in the voting environment, and that details matter for the experience of voting secretly.