On the relationship between age and intentional invalid voting in compulsory elections
Date
2025
Authors
Bordeleau, J.-N.
Praino, R.
Hill, L.
Kretschmer, K.
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Journal article
Citation
Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 2025; 1-14
Statement of Responsibility
Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau, Rodrigo Praino, Lisa Hill, Katharina Kretschmer
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Abstract
Intentional invalid voting – the deliberate act of incorrectly marking one's ballot – poses a significant problem in compulsory voting systems. Indeed, some suggest that these “wasted” ballots raise concerns with regards to electoral legitimacy and the utility of compulsory voting in maximizing voter turnout. Previous research argues that younger voters disproportionately engage in intentional informal voting when compared to older members of the electorate. Using original cross-sectional data from a large sample of voters in the Australian state of Victoria (N = 25,246), we first show that there is only a small relationship between age and intentional informal voting. Building on existing theorizing, we then demonstrate that the relationship between age and informal voting is fully mediated by political disaffection, as measured by voters’ interest in politics, their satisfaction with democracy, and their satisfaction with candidate choices. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and policy implications of these results.
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© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.