The literature as consistently pointed at a positive association between online campaigning and electoral gains. Cyber-campaign appears to be a vote-winning instrument, ceteris paribus. However, much is still unknown about the mechanism associating online campaigning to better electoral performances. This study seeks to investigate the demand side of such a relationship by carrying out a micro-level analysis on voters and internet exposure in the 2011 general election in Ireland. We are interested in exploring two different effects. We investigate whether voters who could access the internet and voters who could not substantially differ in their vote choices. To identify the impact of internet exposure and internet use on voting behaviour, we use broadband availability at village level as exogenous treatment variable. To allow for heterogeneous treatment effects, we implement local average response functions (LARF). In addition, we use spatial regression discontinuity to compare voting behaviour in villages that are close one another, but differ in terms of internet coverage. We then focus on the subgroup of those who state to have actually used an array of internet-based tools to gather information on the electoral campaign, in order to understand the how persuasion or crystallization may happen.
