Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Building Electoral Legitimacy Through Poll Worker Recruitment: The guiding ideas of Swedish electoral management bodies

Engström, Robin LU (2024) STVK04 20241
Department of Political Science
Abstract
Recruitment is a determinant of well-run elections. Through interaction with voters, poll workers affect public confidence in electoral integrity and legitimacy. This thesis studies poll worker recruitment as electoral legitimation strategies. Interviews conducted with Swedish local election administrators are analysed using discourse analytic methods buttressed by institutional and electoral management theory. By asking what ideas underpin poll worker recruitment, three complementary foci are identified: seeing the voter, being seen by the voter and keeping from view, grounded in the values of efficiency, equality and neutrality respectively. The first focus conceptualizes poll workers as part of a machinery requiring a diverse set of... (More)
Recruitment is a determinant of well-run elections. Through interaction with voters, poll workers affect public confidence in electoral integrity and legitimacy. This thesis studies poll worker recruitment as electoral legitimation strategies. Interviews conducted with Swedish local election administrators are analysed using discourse analytic methods buttressed by institutional and electoral management theory. By asking what ideas underpin poll worker recruitment, three complementary foci are identified: seeing the voter, being seen by the voter and keeping from view, grounded in the values of efficiency, equality and neutrality respectively. The first focus conceptualizes poll workers as part of a machinery requiring a diverse set of competences to serve voters (pro)actively. The second focus is on poll workers as canvasses for voters’ affective projections. This requires poll workers to reflect society in terms of different social groups. The third focus is on what should be outside voters’ scope of attention, e.g. partisanship and friends and family. This thesis identifies several legitimation strategies and in so doing showcases the importance of recruiters and institutional expectations in the delivery of high-quality elections. It contributes to the emerging literature on Swedish electoral management, with implications for electoral policy and our understanding of recruitment as legitimacy building. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Engström, Robin LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK04 20241
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
descriptive representation, electoral integrity, institutional theory, public administration, voter confidence
language
English
additional info
The author wishes to thank all the hard-working electoral administrators who make sure everything runs smoothly, but of course a special thanks to all those who chose to participate in this study. The author would also like to thank Sheila Feldmanis, Diane Pecorari and Christer Engström for all their help.
id
9152220
date added to LUP
2024-07-18 11:07:06
date last changed
2024-07-18 11:07:06
@misc{9152220,
  abstract     = {{Recruitment is a determinant of well-run elections. Through interaction with voters, poll workers affect public confidence in electoral integrity and legitimacy. This thesis studies poll worker recruitment as electoral legitimation strategies. Interviews conducted with Swedish local election administrators are analysed using discourse analytic methods buttressed by institutional and electoral management theory. By asking what ideas underpin poll worker recruitment, three complementary foci are identified: seeing the voter, being seen by the voter and keeping from view, grounded in the values of efficiency, equality and neutrality respectively. The first focus conceptualizes poll workers as part of a machinery requiring a diverse set of competences to serve voters (pro)actively. The second focus is on poll workers as canvasses for voters’ affective projections. This requires poll workers to reflect society in terms of different social groups. The third focus is on what should be outside voters’ scope of attention, e.g. partisanship and friends and family. This thesis identifies several legitimation strategies and in so doing showcases the importance of recruiters and institutional expectations in the delivery of high-quality elections. It contributes to the emerging literature on Swedish electoral management, with implications for electoral policy and our understanding of recruitment as legitimacy building.}},
  author       = {{Engström, Robin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Building Electoral Legitimacy Through Poll Worker Recruitment: The guiding ideas of Swedish electoral management bodies}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}