A phenomenon among many newly transitioned states is that elites actively manipulate electoral institutions to secure victory. In these regimes, violations of electoral norms go beyond election-day events. Examples of such abuse include voter intimidation and ballot stuffing. Regimes also systematically bias institutions to alter the electoral playing field. Manipulation of the electoral institutions, such as malproportioning districts and restricting voting registration to subpopulations can contribute to declining distrust in the electoral process.
This paper focuses on the electoral event as the unit of analysis across a sample of semi-authoritarian states from 1980 and 2004. Using Judith Kelly’s Quality of Electoral Democracy (QED) dataset and turnout data from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), this paper seeks to examine the quality and integrity of elections on voter turnout. If voters perceive elections to be systematically biased and unfair, do they disengage from conventional forms of political activity?
