Complaints Concerning Electoral Fraud and Administrative Inaccuracies: A Study of Complaints About the Parliamentary Elections in Sweden Between 2010 and 2018

Abstract

In this study we examine complaints concerning electoral fraud and administrative inaccuracies in an old, stable democracy, namely Sweden. We include complaints about the Swedish parliamentary elections between 2010 and 2018. The aim is to examine why voters complain about elections with a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. The results indicate that elections in Sweden are broadly well run and that Sweden has a robust election system. However, the analysis of the complaints show that many of them relate to the handling of advance votes, and that several human errors (administrative inaccuracies) occurred in handling advance votes. The mishandling of advance votes can increase the risk of reducing citizens' confidence in the election process and, by extension, it can pose a risk of magnifying the perceived decline in the legitimacy of the democratic system.