Will Internet Convenience Save Or Harm Democracy?

from the vote-from-home dept

While in the US we've been arguing about whether or not to use electronic voting machines (complete with all sorts of security problems), up in Canada they've already moved on to offering internet-based voting in a few select areas. However, if the lack of accountability is a problem with electronic voting machines, it's even worse when it comes to internet-based voting. So, the article raises some questions about convenience and democracy. Many people say they end up not voting because it's not convenient. So while convenience will add participation, it might come at the cost of vote integrity. Which is more important to democracy: participation and convenience or voting accuracy - and are the two things mutually exclusive?