The Lack of Information and Difficult Procedures: Explaining Low Registration for Postal Voting in Romania

For the first time in post-Communist Romania, the national legislative elections organized in December 2016 allow the citizens living abroad to cast their vote by regular mail. To use postal voting the voters had to register between May and September 2016 and numbers reveal that very few voters registered. This article analyzes the sources of information used by those who registered and the causes of those who did not register. We use data from a survey conducted between 18 September (a few days after registration was closed) and 4 October 2016 with 403 respondents. The results are not generalizable to the entire diaspora (since the sampling is not representative probabilistic) but they are informative and relevant to the understanding of the process. They show that that main sources of information for those who registered were online (Facebook and the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), newspapers, and friends and acquaintances. At the same time, the absence of information about registration and the difficulty of procedures were the main reasons against the registration.