Online Voting

The Electoral Commission has released the full data from some research UMR did for them last year, including a section on online voting.  It starts on page 43 of this pdf.

• 41% of respondents use online banking once a week or more, whiel 34% do not use at all.
• 60% of under 30s use online banking at least weekly and only 16%
• Confidence in running of election on a 0 to 10 scale has 95% saying 5 or better and 74% an 8 or better
• On same 0 to 10 scale for whether one would choose to vote online, 58% are 5 or higher and 42% an 8 or higher
• For under 30s, 68% are 5 or higher on voting online, and 54% are 8 or higher.
• Over 60s though have only 41% as a 5 or higher and 26% as an 8 or higher.
• 76% say a confirmation screen would be an essential feature of online voting (I agree)

Pages and pages of interesting data. The 2010 local body elections provide a wonderful opportunity to trial online voting, and I hope necessary law and operational changes can be made so it can be used in a few areas.