Replication Data for: Abolishing Compulsory Voting: The Experience in the Flemish Region of Belgium (2024)

There are very few examples of countries abolishing, or introducing, compulsory voting in a clear-cut manner. The Netherlands abolished the system in 1971, and Irwin (1974) documented how this led to a sharp reduction of voter turnout, especially among young people, women, and persons with little political interest. Flanders, the largest autonomous region of Belgium, abolished compulsory voting in October 2024, and we have access to panel data collected before and after the event. We replicate the analysis of Irwin, as electoral participation in the region dropped almost 26 percentage points. Remarkably, results are similar regarding the effect of gender and political interest, but we do not find a significant effect of education level. Hence, the normative argument that abolishing compulsory voting leads to more inequality based on education is not supported by our results. We do not find substantial consequences for the average policy input.