Does the rule matter? A comparison of preference elicitation methods and voting rules based on data from an Austrian regional parliamentary election in 2019

Abstract

Based on data collected in connection with the 2019 parliamentary election in the Austrian region of Styria, we analyze (the use of) different voting rules. Following previous empirical studies in the literature, we use the results of an empirical survey to show that the choice of a voting rule will impact the outcome of an election (if revealed preferences are sincere), at least in certain parts of the social ranking. In addition, we observe a certain desire for voting rules using more fine-grained preference information. In that context, we investigate the degree of consistency in the voters’ declaration of preferences, something of relevance when different voting rules, that require different levels of information, are used. Finally, we discuss the occurrence of strategic behavior that can be observed in the data.