Users can download forms, e-mail officials and interact through the Web. Online enrolment and voting would be examples of such interactions.
Published in Chapter:
E-Lections in New Zealand Local Governments
Alex Dunayev (AXI Web Solutions, New Zealand) and John Paynter (AXI Web Solutions, New Zealand)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 9
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-857-4.ch018
Abstract
Worldwide governments are investing in initiatives to open access to information, resources, communication and services via channels typically used for electronic commerce. Government agencies are usually the leaders in communication technology commonly developed primarily for military use and later adopted by the general public. Since its inception, the Internet has gained widespread usage, prompting governments to provide online services to the public. The broad category for this type of information and services provision is called “e-government.” It is the general description of a way to provide better access to government information and services. According to the New Zealand e-government strategy (Clifford, 2003) the Internet will be used to improve the quality of the services and provide greater opportunities to participate in the democratic process for the citizens. E-government is now emerging as a viable method of offering a good number of government services—from local to global. Central government now provides services such as immigration, social services, income protection, and student loan applications through the Internet. Locally, city, and regional authorities can arrange rubbish collection and traffic fine payment, amongst other things, online. One of the services necessary to maintain this interaction still has a stigma of being “not quite ready” for the Internet—online elections. Because elections govern the process of appointing government officials, they are an essential part of a democratic government (e-democracy). Compared with the larger central governments, the local government segment has a better opportunity to innovate in the elections field. The process of online elections is however very similar between the two types of government. Both require the same basic steps of registering, voting, counting votes, and presenting the election results. In local online elections, there is higher potential for technical and political innovation and a realistic possibility that technology developed for it could later be used for the large-scale central government elections.