E-voting impetus increasing amongst voters
A new study has found a rapidly increasing appetite amongst voters for e-voting, with over 40% of UK internet users agreeing digital voting would make them more likely to back a candidate at the General Election on 6 May.
The figure, from the 2010 Virgin Media Business E-Politics Online Study, shows support for e-voting more than doubling since the previous election in 2005. The sample of over 2,100 adults across the country was questioned by YouGov, which also claimed email was the preferred e-voting channel of choice.
Conversely, voting by SMS text messaging was seen in a negative light, with only 26% of study participants saying the method would make them more likely to vote – and 15% admitting it would make it less likely they’d vote.
“All the signs are that voter engagement with MPs and the electoral process is suffering,” said Lee Hull, director of public sector at Virgin Media Business. “Technology looks like it could be critical in helping to ignite more interest from the public. The absence of an e-voting system is ironic when you think how many people will schedule a visit to the polling station in their digital calendars, and check their emails, texts and Facebook while they’re queuing to vote.”
Greater communication with their respective MP, was another opinion unearthed by the online study, with email now the most popular choice of contact (47%). Despite the rise of online tools like Twitter (requested by 3% of study participants) and Facebook (11%), traditional channels still proved more popular than their digital counterparts. 42% of potential voters asked to be contacted by post or through local media, both up on the 2005 study. In fact only 21% felt that MPs should be more active on the internet, against 45% in 2005.
“The 2010 E-Politics Study shows that voters are crying out for more direct, personal communication from their MPs at a time when numbers at the polling booths continue to fall,” said Lee Hull. “MPs need to combine traditional campaigning methods with web presence, mobile applications and social media in order to be sure of effectively communicating with all citizens,. This multi-channel approach is going to be the most successful way of getting their message out to the public and winning votes.”
Source: Public Technology. Net