Why Consider Internet Voting?
The most obvious advantage of internet voting is convenience for the voter. Regardless of how well polling places are designed and distributed, there could be no more convenient place to vote than from the comfort of one’s home. By making electoral participation as easy as logging in to a website, checking a few boxes on a form, and clicking the “Vote” button, it is likely that voter turnout, and hence the overall legitimacy of the results, may be improved significantly. It could also allow significant cost-savings in the deployment and operation of physical polling stations, if the “adoption rate” of internet voting is at a sufficient level. The counting and tabulating of electronic ballots is potentially much faster and easier than counting traditional paper-based or even optical-scan or punch-card ballots, which may represent significant cost savings as well. It is possible to distinguish three different forms of internet voting: • Polling Site Internet Voting – in which voters cast
