Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Guillermina Marto
Author-Name-First: Guillermina
Author-Name-Last: Marto
Author-Name: Leandro Nallar
Author-Name-First: Leandro
Author-Name-Last: Nallar
Title: “Que se vayan todos”: Null and Blank Votes in Argentine Provinces (1983-2007)
Abstract:  After the restoration of democracy in Argentina, invalid votes equivalent to the sum of null and blank votes, far from representing insignificant issues, were able to powerfully twist the result of the winner in several governor elections. We estimate a Panel Corrected Standard Errors for 22 Argentine provinces between 1983-2007 for null and blank votes. My main motivation is to find the di↵erent incidences of three sets of variables: economic, social and political for each kind of invalid votes. The unemployment rate, crime rate, and reelection are the key variables in the model, but measures for education, electoral competition, and economic framework are included. Most of the variables present opposite e↵ects on null and blank votes. While the relation of unemployment and crime rate with null votes follows a withdrawal e↵ect, blank votes are related to these variables consistent with a mobilization e↵ect. However, when the crime rate has interacted with reelection the patterns of crime seem to be reversed, but unemployment maintains the sign.
Length:  26 pages
Creation-Date:  2019-11
File-URL: https://aaep.org.ar/works/works2019/marto_nallar.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Number: 4172
Classification-JEL: D72, P16
Keywords: Null Votes, Blank Votes, Elections, Argentine Provinces
Handle: RePEc:aep:anales:4172