1) Swedish voters were generally positive about internet voting, with high participation scores but more cautious views on security. 2) Younger, more educated voters and men viewed internet voting more favorably than others in terms of both participation and security. 3) While all major political parties supported internet voting, further research is needed on factors like income, technology skills, ethnicity, and location before implementing it in Sweden.

1. Positive but skeptical
A study of attitudes towards Internet voting in Sweden
Montathar Faraon @ Södertörn University
CeDEM-Asia International Conference for E-Democracy and Open Government
4-6 December 2014, Hong Kong

2. Results
Overall results
Participation
Security
Conclusions
Past research
Digital divide
Support by government
Future work
Introduction
Background
Motivation
Lessons learned
Aim and research
questions
Methods
Questionnaire
Data collection
Participants
2

3. 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

4. 02
Reliability of
the system
Election systems
should work robustly,
without loss of any
votes.
01
Secrecy and
integrity
Votes should remain
secret and not be
modified, forged, or
deleted without
detection.
03
Voter
authentication
Possible to uniquely
identify and authenticate
voters without linking their
identity to the vote.
Background
4

5. 2009
2005
2011 & 2013
2018?
Estonia
Alvarez, Hall, & Trechsel (2009)
Austria
Krimmer, Ehringfeld, & Traxl (2010)
Switzerland
Driza-Maurer (2013)
2009 & 2011
Norway
Segaard, Christensen, Folkestad, &
Saglie (2014)
Sweden
Faraon et al. (2014)
Notes. Countries with legally binding elections.
Background
5

6. 91%
16-85 years
95%
16-74 years
+
Computer Internet Internet
Notes. Numbers referring to the Swedish population for 2013.
Background
6

7. 1
Growing 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.
3
Provide 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
4
Investigate voters’ attitudes to unveil potential
challenges and support decision-making in
the introduction of Internet voting.
Motivation
7

8. Motivation
8

9. 2010
Swedish General Elections
Invalid
votes
58 44368 274
2014
Swedish General Elections
Motivation
9

10. Widespread Internet penetration1
Legal framework and technology
that supports Internet voting
2
National identification system that
allows digital authentication
3
Political culture supporting and
promoting Internet voting
4
Increased transparency by inclusion
of citizens in the design process
5
Lessons learned
10

11. 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

12. Results
Overall results
Participation
Security
Conclusions
Past research
Digital divide
Support by government
Future work
Introduction
Background
Motivation
Lessons learned
Aim and research
questions
Methods
Questionnaire
Data collection
Participants
12

13. 2 0 LIKERT-
T YP E ITEMS
Would the turnout be higher?
Pa rtic ip ati on
Worried about results being manipulated?
Se c urity
Could Internet voting increase
the tendency to participate?
Individual attitudes
1
5
Disagreement
Agreement
Questionnaire
13

14. 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

15. Total
5683
Notes. After exclusion criteria were applied, a total of 5237 participants remained.
Participants
15

16. 47%
Men
53%
Women
Participants
16

17. >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

18. VS
Questionnaire sample
Political 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

19. Results
Overall results
Participation
Security
Conclusions
Past research
Digital divide
Support by government
Future work
Introduction
Background
Motivation
Lessons learned
Aim and research
questions
Methods
Questionnaire
Data collection
Participants
19

20. Participation Scale
(M = .88) (M = .28)
Overall results
Security Scale
Notes. Mean values based on a scale ranging from -2 to +2.
20

21. Participation Scale
21
Men
(M = .85)
Women
Notes. Mean values based on a scale ranging from -2 to +2.
(M = .91)
Gender

22. Security Scale
22
Men
(M = .35)
Women
Notes. Mean values based on a scale ranging from -2 to +2.
(M = .19)
Gender

23. 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

24. 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 = .39
Education

25. Results
Overall results
Participation
Security
Conclusions
Past research
Digital divide
Support by government
Future work
Introduction
Background
Motivation
Lessons learned
Aim and research
questions
Methods
Questionnaire
Data collection
Participants
25

26. 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

27. 27
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.

28. E-mail
montathar.faraon@sh.se
Twitter
@constituo linkedin.com/in/constituo/
28
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