Maduro's Machines Against Paper Coalitions: Party Digitalization and Narratives on Machine Voting in Bulgaria

Abstract Party digitalisation has become an increasingly significant aspect of European parties' organisational work. The literature has explored the sources and effects of party digitalisation, but its influence on political processes remains understudied. This article fills this gap by investigating the contribution of party digitalisation to policy narratives on e‐voting. It focusses on the debates about the restoration of a dual voting method, combining paper ballots and machine voting, in Bulgaria in late 2022. In particular, it performs a narrative analysis on the policy narratives of the political parties represented in the Bulgarian parliament. This exemplary case demonstrates that the level of party digitalisation provides an important context for understanding the policy narratives of these parties. These findings have important implications for the study of party digitalisation. Future works may need to consider party digitalisation as part of political parties' public image.