Who are the internet voters? An age, period and cohort analysis of e-voting use

Abstract

Existing research highlights age-related differences in internet voting but fails to disentangle the underlying effects. We conduct an age, period and cohort (APC) analysis of e-voting use on a unique set of registered, panel data covering 46 ballots in Switzerland between 2004 and 2019. Our findings reveal a joint influence of cohort and age effects on the likelihood of voting online. Voters born between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s display the highest e-voting rates, surpassing both younger and older cohorts. However, within these intermediate cohorts, e-voting usage declines notably with age. In contrast, age exerts little to no influence on e-voting among the youngest cohort (born in the 1990s) and the oldest cohorts (1930s and 1940s), with usage nearing zero for the latter group. These results refine our understanding of how age influences e-voting adoption and help to evaluate its potential to increase voter turnout.