montathar faraon: positive but skeptical: a study of attitudes towards internet voting in sweden
DESCRIPTION
Presentation at CeDEM Asia 2014TRANSCRIPT
Positive but skepticalA study of attitudes towards Internet voting in Sweden
Montathar Faraon @ Södertörn UniversityCeDEM-Asia International Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government
4-6 December 2014, Hong Kong
ResultsOverall results Participation
Security
ConclusionsPast research Digital divide
Support by government Future work
IntroductionBackground Motivation
Lessons learned Aim and research
questions
MethodsQuestionnaire Data collection
Participants
2
Electronic voting at polling stations using voting machines.
The procedure is physically supervised by representatives of
the government.
Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE)
Electronic voting via the Internet.
The procedure is not physically supervised by representatives of
the government.
Remote electronic voting
Background
3
02Reliability of the system
Election systems should work robustly,
without loss of any votes.
01Secrecy and
integrity
Votes should remain secret and not be
modified, forged, or deleted without
detection.
03Voter
authentication
Possible to uniquely identify and authenticate voters without linking their
identity to the vote.
Background
4
2009
2005
2011 & 2013
2018?
EstoniaAlvarez, Hall, & Trechsel (2009)
AustriaKrimmer, Ehringfeld, & Traxl (2010)
SwitzerlandDriza-Maurer (2013)
2009 & 2011
NorwaySegaard, Christensen, Folkestad, &
Saglie (2014)
SwedenFaraon et al. (2014)
Notes. Countries with legally binding elections.
Background
5
91%16-85 years
95%16-74 years
+Computer Internet Internet
Notes. Numbers referring to the Swedish population for 2013.
Background
6
1Growing demand of online services and the general elections in Sweden remain a manual and costly process.
2 Introduce Internet voting as a compliment to maintain and possibly increase voter turnout.
3Provide voters with disabilities and expatriates participation on equal grounds. Reduce proxy vote applications.
Increase accuracy: a) vote check b) tabulation of votes and c) reporting of the election results.5
4Investigate voters’ attitudes to unveil potential challenges and support decision-making in the introduction of Internet voting.
Motivation
7
Motivation
8
2010Swedish General Elections
Invalid votes 58 44368 274
2014Swedish General Elections
Motivation
9
Widespread Internet penetration1
Legal framework and technology that supports Internet voting2
National identification system that allows digital authentication3
Political culture supporting and promoting Internet voting4
Increased transparency by inclusion of citizens in the design process5
Lessons learned
10
How disposed are Swedish voters towards Internet voting?
Participation
How do age, gender, education, employment, and political background influence participation?
Demographics
What role does security play when engaging with Internet voting?
Security
Aim and research questions
11
ResultsOverall results Participation
Security
ConclusionsPast research Digital divide
Support by government Future work
IntroductionBackground Motivation
Lessons learned Aim and research
questions
MethodsQuestionnaire Data collection
Participants
12
2 0 L I K E RT-T Y P E I T E M S
Would the turnout be higher?
P a r t i c i p a t i o n
Worried about results being manipulated?
S e c u r i t y
Could Internet voting increase the tendency to participate?
I n d i v i d u a l a t t i t u d e s
1
5
D i s a g re e m e n t
A g re e m e n t
Questionnaire
13
Experimental polling on Facebook before election day
START
FINISH
2
3
Participants given informed consent to be contacted in the future
Participants completed the questionnaire
Participants were contacted through e-mail
Data collection
14
Total 5683
Notes. After exclusion criteria were applied, a total of 5237 participants remained.
Participants
15
47%
Men
53%
Women
Participants
16
>65 (3,3%)
56-65 (9,1%)
46-55 (15,7%)
36-45 (18,3%)
26-35 (21,9%)
≤25 (31,7%)
Age
Participants
17
VSQuestionnaire samplePolitical allegiance
(N = 5 237)
Apolitical 23.3%
35.0%
41.7%
Apolitical22.3%
41.2%
36.5%
Liberal-Conservative Alliance Liberal-Conservative Alliance
Red-Green Opposition Red-Green Opposition
Swedish electorate
Participants
Political allegiance (N = 7 201 600)
18
ResultsOverall results Participation
Security
ConclusionsPast research Digital divide
Support by government Future work
IntroductionBackground Motivation
Lessons learned Aim and research
questions
MethodsQuestionnaire Data collection
Participants
19
Participation Scale
(M = .88) (M = .28)
Overall results
Security Scale
Notes. Mean values based on a scale ranging from -2 to +2.20
Participation Scale
21
Men
(M = .85)Women
Notes. Mean values based on a scale ranging from -2 to +2.
(M = .91)
Gender
Security Scale
22
Men
(M = .35)Women
Notes. Mean values based on a scale ranging from -2 to +2.
(M = .19)
Gender
Participation Scale
23
Compulsory (9 years) High school (10-12 years) College (13-15 years) Postgraduate (15+ years)
M = .85
M = .93
M = .88
M = .81
Education
Security Scale
24
Compulsory (9 years) High school (10-12 years) College (13-15 years) Postgraduate (15+ years)
M = .12
M = .22
M = .34
M = .39Education
ResultsOverall results Participation
Security
ConclusionsPast research Digital divide
Support by government Future work
IntroductionBackground Motivation
Lessons learned Aim and research
questions
MethodsQuestionnaire Data collection
Participants
25
26
Past research and digital divide
Women, groups with relatively short education, and the unemployed or self-employed.
Groups
Those with lower education want to adopt Internet voting more compared to their counterparts.
Education
No difference between age classes.Age
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Support by government and future work
1 The full spectrum of political parties was sympathetic to the use of Internet voting.
2
Future work: income level, technological proficiency, ethnic background, and geographical distribution.3
Swedish population would receive Internet voting with a positive interest, preparedness to participate, and a cautious optimism regarding the security issues.
@constituo linkedin.com/in/constituo/
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Thank you for your attention!