Online voting: Boon or bane for democracy?

Abstract

Estonia is the only country in the world where all voters can vote online in national elections. In the 2015 election, 31% of voters did so. This paper discusses the sociology and politics of online voting in Estonia. I first show that online voting is a partisan project. Liberal, conservative, and social democratic parties support online voting as a way of modernizing the electoral system, while populist and agrarian parties oppose it as a tool for political manipulation. I then show that online voting is demographically and politically biased. Online voters are more urban, richer, and better-educated than conventional voters and non-voters. The opposition left-populist Center Party receives fewer votes online than the governing market-liberal Reform Party. This is a bad thing for democracy and Estonia should discontinue online voting.

A Bark But No Bite: Inequality and the 2014 New Zealand General Election

“…Fears of biases have receded as uptake has increased (Vassil et al 2016). But there is contrary evidence that online voters are 'more urban, richer, and better-educated than conventional voters and non-voters' (Lust 2015). Methodologically, when using observational data, the effects of internet voting are difficult to establish in a robust fashion due to the self-selection of those who choose to use it or not; experimental evidence comparing randomly assigned treatment and non-treatment effects would be preferable, but that raises questions of external validity.…”

The Digitization of Democracy in Practice

“…Internet voting, in this case, can distort election results, particularly in close elections. As concluded by Lust (2015), i-voting practices in Estonia are becoming more politically biased. Even worse, Kitsing (2011) points out that the availability of innovative platforms for online political participation has yet to engage the public in the legislative process.…”