Comparative Perspectives on Electoral Integrity Beliefs: A Case Study of Austria and Germany

This article examines the perception of electoral integrity in Austria and Germany, two established democracies with robust electoral systems. Despite their high standards, both countries have faced significant challenges regarding electoral integrity. In Austria, the 2016 presidential election was annulled by the Constitutional Court due to procedural irregularities affecting postal ballots. In Germany, widespread organizational failures during the 2021 federal election—including missing ballot papers—prompted the Federal Constitutional Court to order a partial rerun. Although no evidence of intentional fraud was found, these breaches were deemed sufficient to undermine public confidence in the electoral process and raise the question to what extent is electoral fraud perceived in Austria and Germany and whether electoral integrity is therefore rated low in both countries. The analysis proposes a multidimensional conceptualization of electoral integrity, incorporating fraud risk perception (voting by mail vs. in the polling station), populist voting, and feelings of economic insecurity. Methodologically, the study applies a harmonized set of survey indicators to enable explorative cross-national comparison and uses multivariate regression models to identify individual-level predictors of electoral confidence. Drawing on two surveys—conducted in Austria in 2020 and Germany in 2025—the analysis reveals that the perceived risk of voting in person or by post is linked to a negative assessment of institutional integrity, but not to external influences such as foreign interference or manipulation through biased information on social media platforms. This is particularly interesting because, in the two well-functioning democracies studied, the former risks are objectively considered to be significantly lower than, for example, the influence of misinformation on social media.