Electoral Integrity in the 2017 and 2021 German Federal Elections

Based on a comparable set of indicators, we will examine how citizens perceived the integrity of the 2017 and 2021 German federal election. So far, there is very limited research on perceptions of Electoral Integrity in Germany, probably due to the fact that it has been taken for granted that the integrity of German elections was beyond question, and it was implicitly assumed that the electorate would see it the same way. However, the result of our research suggests that this view, at least recently, is no longer justified. Our analytical approach is exploratory and "y-centered": based on hypotheses that are discussed in the literature on the background of perceptions of electoral integrity, we want to investigate why most citizens attributed high procedural quality to the 2017 and 2021 federal elections, but a number that is by no means negligible saw it differently. Our paper will be structured as follows: First of all, we successively discuss a number of hypotheses about the possible backgrounds of perceptions of the integrity of the Bundestag election and test them in corresponding partial models. Finally, we check the robustness of the relationships found in this way using an integrated overall model. Our results show that there is a close connection between satisfaction with democracy and the perception of electoral integrity; but other indicators of (dissatisfaction) satisfaction - political as well as economic - also prove to be robust predictors. In addition, the use of political information from certain media sources is also related to the judgments of the citizens about the quality of the electoral process. And even if all other factors are checked, there is still a negative effect of both the AfD election and the non-election.