Headlines: April 30th, 2010

Findings from a Virgin Media Business E-Politics Study found that the popularity of e-voting had doubled since the last election in 2005.

More than two in five of British internet users say e-voting would make them more likely to back a candidate at next week’s General Election with the number of voters backing a digitised ballot card system rising from 19 to 43 per cent since the last Parliamentary election.

With experts predicting that the poll next week could suffer from the lowest turnout in modern times, dipping below 59 per cent, bringing in e-voting could help turn the tide on voter apathy.

This interest in technology could also attract more support for candidates who use it to engage with their local community, with voters seeking more electoral communication across different channels.

However, text voting was given a resounding thumbs-down, with only 26 per cent of people questioned in the study seeing it as making them more likely to vote. In fact, 15 per cent said texting would make them less likely to vote.

The 2010 survey was conducted by YouGov Plc and used a sub-set of questions from the 2005 study. The total sample size was 2,170 adults, questioned online between 1 and 6 April, 2010.