Just how risky is online voting?

Issue title: Public Administration in the Information Society: Essays in Risk and Trust

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Coleman, Stephen^a

Affiliations: [a] Oxford University, Oxford, UK. E-mail: stephen.coleman@oii.ox.ac.uk

Abstract: The UK Government is committed to experimentation with online voting and has promoted Internet voting in local elections in 2002 and 2003. This article examines the risks of online voting and suggests that political risks should not be conceived in terms of an elusive scientific objectivity, but should be understood as arising from reflexive contestations involving a range of actors and contexts. After examining the risk of online voting from several perspectives, the article concludes by arguing for a more politicised and nuanced conception of risk which takes into account non-functional aspects of voting, such as the symbolic.

DOI: 10.3233/IP-2005-0064

Journal: Information Polity, vol. 10, no. 1-2, pp. 95-104, 2005