To I-Vote or Not to I-Vote?

Abstract

The prospect of Internet voting has received much attention because of concerns over the integrity of the U.S. electoral system. Proponents of Internet voting contend that the Internet will play an important role in revitalizing the American electorate. Opponents counter that Internet voting will benefit already advantaged groups. Using data collected in Arizona during the 2000 general election campaign, this study examined the opinions of registered voters (N = 501) toward Internet voting and found that almost one half of survey respondents opposed Internet voting. Results suggest that Internet voting could change the sociodemographic and ideological composition of the voting electorate. Concerns about the composition of the electorate, however, were not prevalent in survey participants' openended responses about the potential disadvantages of Internet voting.

The Growth of Internet Research Methods and the Reluctant Sociologist

“…Voting behavior undoubtedly tops the list of these issues. Given that e‐voting is a rapidly developing technology (Kenski 2005; Oostveen and Van Den Besselaar 2005), it follows that Internet polling can offer valued predictions. Broad social changes also suggest that Web‐based surveys will have increasingly relevant application to the general population.…”

Digital Divide or Just Another Absentee Ballot?

“…In these party-run presidential nominating contests, the state parties did not provide information beyond the limited data required by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for the allocation of delegates to the national convention. Therefore, analyses of the 2000 Arizona election have relied on survey data (Kenski, 2005;Solop, 2001) or county-level turnout data (Alvarez & Nagler, 2001;Gibson, 2002), but because Arizona has only 15 counties, the ability to make inferences about individual voters from county-level information is limited.…”