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Web Survey Bibliography

Title E-voting: participation, turn out, and digital divide
Author Oostveen, A.-M., Besselaar, P.
Year 2004
Access date 07.05.2004
Abstract In this paper we report the results of 14 experiments with an e-voting system, in five sites (two municipalities, two community networks, and a trade union) in four countries (Italy, UK, France, Finland) (1). We organized in every site three subsequent voting sessions with the same group of voters. Before the experiments we asked respondents to complete a questionnaire, and the same was done after the first and the third e-voting experiment. In the questionnaire we asked about personal characteristics, such as the level of computer literacy, and opinions about the role of ICT in society, and questions related to usability of the system and trust in the safety and secrecy of the voting technology. The field experiments were held in winter and spring of 2003. In this paper we discuss the following questions:
- Does the usability of and trust in the system influence the use ( = participation in the ballot)?
- Does this change over time (learning effects)?
- What are the differences between different social groups, and between countries; and is a digital divide visible?
- Finally, e-voting also enables longer voting periods. Do logfiles of the voting sessions indicate that these longer voting periods result in higher turnout? If so, for which types of voters?
Based on the data of two experiments, we found interesting results (2, 3):
- the organizational dimensions of usability are rather weak,
- the trust in the secrecy (privacy) of the system is very low,
- this changes over time but not in a uniform way,
- usability, trust, and use are related to the digital divide,
- there is no relation between turnout and duration of the vote,
- that trust and usability seem to influence the outcomes.
We now are analyzing the full set of data. By answering these empirical questions we aim to contribute to the understanding of the effect of new information technologies and media on the quality of the political process.
Access/Direct link Homepage - conference (abstract)
Year of publication2004
Bibliographic typeConferences, workshops, tutorials, presentations
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Web survey bibliography - Italy (57)

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