Purpose of the study
The purpose of the study was to examine the voting experience of Estonian e-voters
during the local elections in fall 2005 and identify the profile of the e-voter.
Specific research questions where as following:
Q1: What is the level of political participation of the e-voter?
Q2: What technical skills and opportunities do e-voters have?
Q3: How do e-voters describe the current e-voting experience?
Method
Empirical data was gathered using the internet-based questionnaire. Questions were
presented to the public during one week after the election day from October 17-23,
2005. Total number of e-voters who participated in current electronic elections was
9287. A selection of 324 answered the questionnaire. E-voters were invited to answer
the questionnaire through the online advertising in the Estonian largest newspaper
online edition and information letters were sent to eight large mailing lists including
academic, governmental and private institutions.
The social demographic profile of the selection reads as following: 15% represent a
younger generation of e-voters aged 18-24; 46% aged 25-34; 54% live in Tallinn, the
capital of Estonia, 22% in Tartu, the second biggest town in Estonia. 62% of the
people who answered the questionnaire were male, 38% female. Personal income of
45% of the total selection exceeds 7000 EEK. 68% held a bachelor or higher degree.
Key findings
Despite the small number of e-voters, those who voted considered their e-voting
experience positive and they would like to have an e-voting opportunity in future
ballots. The risks associated with the credibility of the e-voting system predicted by
many technical experts were not significant. On the contrary, the well deployed, tried
and tested internet banking ensured a sufficient reliability and credibility rate to e-voters. It was also visible that the credibility rate that was given to the internet
banking transformed into credibility rate of the state as a software developer. Since
the experience was positive and the rate of credibility relatively high, the e-voter agrees to recommend e-voting to his friends and acts as reference partner to new e-
voters. This situation allows the government to adopt methods of affiliate marketing
in future electronic elections and this may increase the number of e-voters. If it has a
short term impact on the general growth of voting activity is questionable.
The level of political participation of e-voters is high. They are people with certain
political preferences and they are convinced that voting is something not to be missed
even despite the poor weather. Since the rate of political participation of the e-voter is
high, it is questionable if e-voting affects general voting activity in the short-term. E-
voting is rather an alternative to the traditional ballot and the main motive to
participate in e-voting is convenience. However, we predict increasing voter turnout
that proceeds from the growing number of e-services consumers and persistent
governmental marketing of e-voting as an alternative and convenient mean to vote.
E-voters are technically competent, skilful at using computers and e-services and they
have excellent access to the internet. Contrary to our prediction, technological barriers
(such as the installment of the ID-card reader) were marked as irrelevant. Moreover,
there was a considerable number of people who purchased ID-card in order to
participate in e-voting. E-voters expressed their satisfaction with the e-voting system