A new report from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister predicts a bright future for e-voting. Internet and text message services are seen as a way to increase efficiency and public participation in the electoral process. Political e-voting has been linked to the success of SMS text message voting systems for TV shows such as Big Brother and Pop Idol. Present security concerns around electronic voting and fraud are acknowledged in the report, but the watchword for the future of voting is ‘choice’.

Naturally, there are others who take a more sanguine view. Professor Stephen Coleman of the Oxford Internet Institute sees the internet as a way for people to ‘keep the dialogue going’ around the subject of politics, rather than as a glitzy new way to persuade disaffected citizens to mark their vote. In his view, politicians should make more effort to engage with voters throughout the whole election term using electronic methods, rather than just at the polls.