ABSTRACT
The growing literature on internet voting has until now focused on the question of the technical/legal feasibility and the impact it could have on electoral turnout. Surprisingly, no research has focused on the impact that i-voting could have on electoral opinion formation. We believe this to be a fundamental issue that should not be ignored, since, as some critics have already pointed out, a limited introduction of i-voting could, by accelerating, simplifying and individualising the act of voting, have a negative impact on opinion formation. If so, should i-voting still be promoted? Should public administrations, in other words, promote a new ‘technology of democracy’ 1 that could increase the quantity of participation at the expense of the quality of participation? We argue that the introduction of i-voting, if implemented with what we call a ‘pre-voting sphere’, could not only increase electoral turnout but also improve the quality of electoral opinion formation.
