E-Voting and Transformation of Participation in Europe: Exploring the Profile of E-Voters in Poland

Authors:

• Izabela Kapsa,
• Óscar G. Luengo,
• Magdalena Musiał-Karg

Abstract

This paper refers to the discussion on the impact of new technologies on political participation with a special emphasis put on ICT’s influence on the electoral process. The main research problem approached is associated with the ways of political participation in Europe in a comparative perspective but paying particular attention to the Polish case. The part of the article dedicated to discussing the electoral and non-electoral forms of civic involvement in Europe is based on data sets analysis from European Social Survey (ESS 2018) and it aims to verify the general hypothesis that the impact of Internet usage on political participation differs across Europe. For the study of the Polish case, we used data collected in a survey conducted by the authors in 2018. It focuses on answering the question of whether (and if yes—in what way) the use of ICTs is affecting the willingness to use ICT-based tools in electoral processes in Poland and what is the profile of the potential e-voter in this country. The research results confirm that there are significant cross-country differences in both types of political participation which derive from demographic factors (education and age mainly) but Internet usage is a better predictor for non-electoral participation than for voting. Regarding Poland, the general public declares a high level of support for e-voting (mean general e-voting support index was 3.61 out of 5) and it scores the highest results among people aged between 25 and 44, with secondary or higher education, living in urban areas.