New Survey Shows 58% of Americans Would Consider a Digital, Virtual Voting Method
May 23 2024 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
e-Residency research indicates strong
confidence in modernizing traditional polling and digital voting
processes, and high trust in government to deliver new digital
services effectively
Despite the dominating narrative that the US confidence in the
election process is at an all-time low, new research from
e-Residency, a government-issued digital identity that provides
non-residents access to Estonia’s digital services for the last 10
years, indicates high trust in government ability to introduce a
new method of digital voting.
The survey shows that 70% of Americans trust the US government
to deliver new digital services. While in-person voting was seen as
the gold standard process in the US until the Covid-19 pandemic,
58% of respondents would now be willing to consider a new voting
method that might be quicker than visiting a polling station.
Almost two thirds (61%) of US respondents agreed an electronic
voting process could be easier to use than traditional polling
stations.
When it comes to the US government’s ability to deliver these
services, 77% of e-Residency survey respondents feel a degree of
confidence that their local governments are sufficiently embracing
technology, with the majority of Americans (82%) rejecting that
limited access to the internet or high-speed connectivity issues
are factors that might prevent them from registering to vote
electronically.
e-Residency conducted the research to gauge citizens' opinions
on digitizing government services, including voting, in both the US
and UK.
Designing digital systems
The research asked respondents which services they would find
most useful if available on a single digital platform operated by
their government. US citizens are evenly split across which
services they would like digitized. From most to least popular,
these include:
- Banking: 36% of Americans noted that having better
access to online banking services was the digital service they
would find most valuable
- Completing and submitting tax returns: Digital tax
services followed at 35%
- Local government services: Tied with tax returns, 35% of
Americans said that digitizing local government services, like
street care and crime reporting, would be useful
- Digital voting in elections: More than a third (34%) of
respondents noted digital voting would be helpful, with males (38%)
and millennials (28%) the most passionate about online voting
Designing digital services around transparency can also lead to
increased faith in and usage of wider government systems, with over
half (51%) of US respondents believing electronic interfaces would
streamline interactions with government services and over a third
(35%) agreeing that electronic voting would increase their faith in
the electoral process.
Barriers to digital uptake
While there is clearly a desire for certain services to be
offered digitally, there are barriers that must be addressed to
encourage their usage.
When asked what would prevent individuals from registering to
vote electronically the main concern was around personal data
security and privacy (43%) closely followed by cyber attacks and
hacking (43%).
Liina Vahtras, Managing Director of e-Residency said,
“Research indicates a growing demand in the US for the
digitalization of various services, and it is encouraging to note
that the vast majority of Americans trust their government to
deliver these successfully. By digitizing essential government
functions and integrating technology into many facets of society,
administrative tasks become simpler and more accessible for
residents and non-residents alike.
“Estonia is the world’s first fully digitally transformed
society with 99% of public services being available online. This
successful digital infrastructure, built on 30 years of
transparency and integrity, has resulted in a seamlessly integrated
digital society with widespread citizen participation. The
e-Residency program was created to provide digital IDs to all
vetted non-residents, who through this, are able to access
Estonia’s wealth of digital services, including access to the
country’s transparent business environment as well as to the EU
single market. Across its decade-long tenure, the e-Residency
program has granted e-resident status for nearly 150,000 citizens
from 185 different countries, with this number continuing to climb,
which speaks to the desire for digitization of various
services.”
Luke Seelenbinder, e-Resident and founder of Funktional OÜ
said, “The e-Residency program has been central to my business
endeavours. As a South Carolina native, I was drawn in by Estonia’s
innovative approach to digital services and business support. After
learning more about Estonia's entrepreneurial ecosystem and
culture, I made the leap to start my own company through
e-Residency. Thanks to Estonia's digital services taking the
hassle out of everyday administrative tasks, I’ve been able to
easily balance running my company with focusing on growing my other
ventures, all done remotely from the Swiss Alps.”
e-Residency
Estonia launched the world’s first e-Residency programme at the
end of 2014, with the aim of providing non-residents safe access to
its fully digital public services. Over the years, over 113,500
people have been granted e-resident status. E-residents have set up
more than 30,200 companies in Estonia.
E-residents are free to work anytime, anywhere. The programme
offers entrepreneurs an easy and affordable way to expand their
business across borders and be location-independent. By leveraging
the high-security e-resident digital ID, entrepreneurs can
streamline cross-border operations without the burden of excessive
paperwork. With the ability to create time-stamped Qualified
Electronic Signatures, entrepreneurs can confidently sign legal
contracts and authenticate transactions with the same legal
validity as handwritten signatures.
For more information about Estonian e-Residency and related
statistics, please visit: https://www.e-resident.gov.ee
About Estonian e-ID
All Estonians have a state-issued digital identity. This
electronic identity system, called e-ID, has existed over 20 years
and is the cornerstone of the country’s e-state. People use their
e-Identities to pay bills, vote online, sign contracts, shop,
access their health information, and much more. It was first used
for voting almost 20 years ago in 2005.
Estonians can use their e-Identity via state-issued identity or
ID-card, using Mobile-ID on their smartphones, or the application
Smart-ID.
Methodology
This e-Residency study was conducted online in April 2024, among
a sample of 2,000 adults aged 18 and over living in the United
States of America. Respondents for these surveys were selected from
a panel of respondents compensated to take surveys relevant to
them. The modelled error estimate for the full sample is plus or
minus 2.2 percentage points.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240523957186/en/
Mary Taylor / Elisa Litvin eresidency@clarity.global