Home // International Journal On Advances in Internet Technology, volume 3, numbers 3 and 4, 2010 // View article

The Impacts of the Digital Divide on Citizens’ Intentions to Use Internet Voting

Authors:
France Belanger
Lemuria Carter

Keywords: Internet voting, digital divide, technology adoption, e-services, access divide, skills divide

Abstract:
Internet voting is increasingly used by governments and corporations as a means for individuals to cast their votes. However, not everyone has access to and is comfortable with the use of technology. This digital divide is composed of the access divide and the skills divide. This study explores the impact of the digital divide on Internet voting (I-voting). We propose a model of the effects of the digital divide on I-voting, which suggests that age, income, education and frequency of Internet use have an impact on I-voting utilization. Online and paper-based surveys were administered to a large sample of citizens of varied backgrounds to test the model. The results of multiple linear regressions indicate that age, income, and Internet use (representing the access and skills divide) have a significant impact on Internet voting. Education was not found to be significant. These findings indicate that, like other e-government services, I-voting is subject to the barriers associated with the digital divide, and this digital divide introduces several challenges to government agencies.

Pages: 203 to 211

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2010. Used with permission.

Publication date: April 6, 2011

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2652