Authors

• Peltoniemi, Johanna (University of Helsinki. Faculty of Social Sciences)
• Weide, Marjukka (University of Helsinki. Faculty of Social Sciences)
• Nemcok, Miroslav (University of Helsinki. Faculty of Social Sciences)
• Wass, Hanna (University of Helsinki. Faculty of Social Sciences)

Keywords

European parliament elections, elections, expatriates, living abroad, national identity, parliamentary elections, political participation, satisfaction, social influence, suffrage, voting, voting behaviour

Abstract

The dataset consists of interviews with and self-administered written texts by Finnish expatriates on their attitudes towards and experiences with postal voting in Finnish elections. The data were collected as part of the Facilitating Electoral Participation from Abroad (FACE) research project, and the project was funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation.

The writing guidelines and interview questions charted the factors that motivated expatriates to vote, the obstacles and challenges expatriates associated with voting, and ways in which voting could be made easier. Postal voting was introduced as a new voting method during the 2019 Finnish parliamentary elections. The study examined how Finnish expatriates viewed postal voting and what their relationship to postal voting was. The questions investigated participants' experiences of the functionality of postal voting, possible risks associated with postal voting, and how the opportunity to use postal voting to vote had affected voter turnout. The impact that voting method had on the experience of voting was also examined.

Background variables included the date of the interview/self-administered written text submission, the type of data (interview vs. self-administered written text), whether the participant had voted or attempted to vote using postal voting, and whether the participant had voted in advance at an advance polling station during the 2019 Finnish parliamentary elections. The data were organised into an easy to use HTML version at FSD. In addition to this qualitative dataset, a quantitative dataset (FSD3575 Political Participation of Finnish Expatriates 2019) that was produced as part of the FACE research project has also been archived at FSD.

The dataset is only available in Finnish.