Cleaning Up the Vote : The Case of Sweden, 1719-1911

In this paper I purport to explain how and why electoral corruption was abolished in the case of Sweden, drawing on original data from second-instance election petitions filed in 1719-1909. These petitions reveal fraudulent practices in the electoral history of Sweden, most notably systematic procedural violations committed by local election administrators committed towards the end of the Age of Liberty in the 18th century. By the mid 19th century, however, Swedish elections had by and large been purged from fraud, and most petitions instead concerned unclear regulations pertaining to suffrage and eligibility criteria. I argue that this development cannot be explained by changes in electoral rules, such as the secret ballot, or by shifts in economic inequality. Instead, the ebb and flow of electoral fraud in Sweden could best be understood as stemming from the combination of two factors: partisanship and administrative corruption