Feyaad Allie - Facial Recognition Technology and Voter Turnout

Date
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Abstract

A perennial challenge for the state is making its citizens legible. Traditionally states gathered information on their citizens through methods like cadastral maps and permanent last names. Over the past several decades, with major advancements in technology, state efforts to collect information on citizens and their activities have taken on a new form. One of these new technologies is facial recognition technology which states use to assist in policing citizens, monitoring public goods, and even running elections. This paper asks how FRT in polling stations affects voter turnout. Existing research on technology in elections offer ambiguous predictions for the direction and magnitude of the effect. I leverage a state-run randomized pilot of FRT in local elections in Telangana, India to show that polling stations with FRT have lower turnout compared to those without. I provide suggestive evidence that voter concerns about the government’s ability to identify them with technology explains the effect. The results indicate that technology at the polls may have negative consequences for the cornerstone of democracy: voting.

Biography

Feyaad Allie is a Ph.D. candidate studying comparative politics. His dissertation studies minority political representation with a focus on India. He is also interested in intergroup violence, the intersection of technology and politics, and migration.