Report: E-voting could have added 400,000 voters

A survey released today shows that just over half of Irish voters would have been willing to use e-voting, (voting on-line or by text) if it had been available in the May election.

The survey undertaken by Damovo, a business communications provider, questioned 931 Irish adults on the recent general election and their attitudes towards e-voting.

The results show that just over half of Irish voters (51%) would have been willing to use e-voting if available in the May election.

This rises to almost two-thirds (66%) of younger voters (18-34 year olds). In addition, almost half of the people (44%) who didn't vote in the recent election claimed this was due to the fact that they had difficulty getting to their polling station for a variety of reasons.

It also indicates that an additional 395,640 people would have voted if these e-voting methods were available on polling day.

The actual election turnout was just over two million people.

John McCabe, managing director, Damovo Ireland, said: "This survey reveals that Irish people are very open to the proposition of voting by electronic means. As expected, younger people showed most interest in voting remotely via the web, phone or by text.

Alarmingly, our poll revealed that half of 18-24 year olds didn't vote in the recent election. For many of this generation, the concept of going to a polling station to write an 'X' on a card seems strange to them. With another quarter of a million Irish teenagers reaching voting age at the next election, the government should start to consider additional voting methods."