Voting Under Pressure: Perceptions of Counter-Strategies in Internet Voting

While internet voting can enhance democratic participation, concerns about voter coercion have emerged due to the uncontrolled voting environment. To mitigate this, researchers have proposed different types of counter-strategies, allowing voters to cast their intended vote despite being coerced. We conduct semi-structured interviews (N = 26) to investigate voters’ perceptions of six types of counter-strategies concerning their effectiveness. Our findings show that the voter’s perception of the effectiveness of counter-strategies depends on both the technical and personal skills of voters, concrete risks, and ease of use. Overall, our findings pave the way for future research aimed at developing user-friendly solutions that are effective against voter coercion.