INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS Voter Turnout in Sweden 1994–2014 STEFAN DAHLBERG July 2016 n Turnout levels have been relatively stable in Sweden over time with an average of ap­proximately 85 percent since 1944 to present time. The highest aggregated turnout level was reached in the 1976 election with 91,8 percent while the lowest turnout rate in modern time is found in the election of 2002 with 80,1 percent. n The decline in turnout for both the national elections as well as for the elections to the European parliament was broken in the mid-2000. One of the most viable explanations for the break in this trend was the reorganization of the system for absentee voting. n Simulation studies based on information on voters and non-voters for the election of 2014 have shown that there would not have had any substantial impact on the seats allocated to the political parties if all eligible voters had been participating(if turnout rate was 100 percent instead of 85,8). n Voter turnout has been debated by the Swedish political parties from time to time. The first major debate in modern time started in the 1960s and was then renewed during the period of 1987–1999. The debates resulted in several government initi­ated investigations, usually conducted by researcher from the academia. n One electoral reform with the aim of finding a balance between political stability, voter accountability and voter turnout was when the terms of office change from three to four year election cycles were starting in 1994. Another reform with the purpose of vitalizing the democratic system was the candidate vote reform launched for the election in 1998. n The most recent reform with the specific purpose of increasing turnout was the transferred responsibility for absentee from Posten AB to the country’s municipalities in 2006. The reform resulted in a drastic increase in the number of polling stations for absentee voting.