Milena Djourelova, from Cornell University, will present "The Electoral Effects of Voting Technology: Evidence from Bulgaria"

Can voting technology improve the integrity of elections? We study this question in the context of Bulgaria’s transition from paper ballots to machine voting over seven elections, exploiting a sharp discontinuity in the rule for the allocation of voting machines across polling stations. We find that machine voting increases the share of valid votes, de-facto enfranchising a substantial share of voters, but also causes a significant reduction in turnout. We explore mechanisms related to the prevention of vote buying a major goal of the introduction of machine voting – as well as mechanisms related to voters’ aversion to new technologies.