News

U.S. voters divided on e-voting prospects

February 14, 2002

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Americans are open to new forms of voting technology, as long as it comes in a familiar package such as an ATM, a new survey reveals.

Gartner Group Inc

. (NYSE: ITand ITB) conducted a telephone survey of 1,005 registered voters nationwide from Nov. 30 through Dec.5, 2000. Confusing ballot tallies following the November 2000 presidential election prompted public cries for electoral reform that included modern voting technology.

Fifty percent of those surveyed said they would be very willing to go to a polling place and cast their vote using a touchscreen, similar to a bank ATM. This innovation, known as direct registered electronic voting, was not appealing to 12 percent of the respondents who said they were not at all willing to use such technology.

About one-third of those surveyed said they would be very willing to use e-mail or the Internet to register to vote (34 percent), to request an absentee ballot (32 percent), or to cast their vote on Election Day (33 percent). Slightly fewer (28 percent) said they would be willing to return an absentee ballot via e-mail or the Internet. But proportions ranging from 27 percent to 32 percent said they would not be at all willing to use e-mail or the Internet for these election-related activities.

No more than 2 percent of respondents had used e-mail or the Internet for any voting-related activity detailed in the study, but that proportion is expected to grow in future elections.

The sentiment for e-voting is not unanimous. Among heavy Internet users, 18 percent are not willing to use the Internet to register or to vote. That proportion rises to more than half (52 percent) among people who don't use the Internet at all, who still constitute one-third of respondents in this study.