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Geneva (Switzerland) has organized ten official ballots in which it was possible for voters to vote online, next to the mail ballot and the polling stations. The analysis of the profile and motives of the internet voting users shows that the traditional dimensions used in political science to explain political participation - resources, competency, motivation or mobilization - ignore a subjective – or affective – dimension that is centered on the voter’s personality and is not directly linked either to the ballot issue or to an idea of common good.
This emotional dimension is the driver of internet vote use. Coincidentally, iVoting is mostly used by citizens who describe themselves as irregular voters or abstainers. These observations point to the existence in the developed world of invisible barriers preventing political participation, as these citizens do not lack either resources or knowledge, but do not show a desire to participate by the common paper-based channels. For them, political participation is a self-centered process.
These citizens do not therefore display the usual profile of abstainers, marked by social or cultural deficits.
This can be analyzed as a development of the current way of doing politics where communication is the measure of political feasibility and the criteria of the politicians’ ability. Emotions and image reign in politics; with internet voting
Ultimately, this reflects a deep shift in the political life, from class-based choices to individual choices in the realm of public affairs. The present-day common good is defined by an aggregation of individual wills.
Keywords:
internet voting, Switzerland, turnout, eDemocracy, public participation, disenfranchisement
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