A major new survey by the European Commission with 27,000 respondents has found that online voting would be the most preferred method of voting for citizens living in another EU country. 42% said they would prefer to vote in the national elections of their country of origin online compared with 27% preferring to vote an an embassy/consulate and 19% preferring to vote by post.
In 21 Member States, including the UK, online voting was the most popular choice. Voting at an embassy/consulate was the most common response in six countries (Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, and Romania) and just one country, Germany, was the only Member State to have postal voting as the most preferred option.
A growing number of countries around the world are beginning to experiment with the technology with South Korea becoming the latest to announce pilots of blockchain-based online voting.
The European Commission’s survey also highlighted concerns about online election interference. Almost three quarters of internet users (73%) said they are concerned about online disinformation and more than two-thirds (67%) are concerned that the personal data they leave on the internet is being used for targeted political advertising.
81% of internet users said they are in favour of social media platforms being transparent about who is paying for online advertisements, the amount of money received from campaign groups, and the support provided to political parties.
Read the full survey results on the European Commission website here.
WebRoots Democracy 