The internet is a technology used worldwide and is not only essential to the lives of twenty-first century citizens, but it is an extremely powerful and influential tool. The internet is used to process multiple daily transactions from business correspondence, overseas purchases and online banking. As the internet becomes an increasingly integral component to everyday life, the question of implementing online voting has been widely discussed and debated as demonstrated in articles "Why Internet voting is bad for democracy" by Froma Harrop and "Internet Voting can Reform Democracy" by Nobuo Ikeda. These articles represent different views about the relationship between internet voting and democracy. The Internet continues to influence and evolve society and as a result political discussion on internet voting is necessary as the implementation of internet voting will have an impact on democracy. With internet voting as a subject of debate in today's society, it is evident that society is evolving and in response democracy will evolve. .
The right to vote and exercising this right is fundamental in democracy. However, as highlighted in Harrop's aritcle "Why Internet voting is bad for democracy," a majority of citizens to not exercise this fundamental right. He states that citizens do not utilize their right to vote when voting is "already a cinch." He believes that the main problem for the lack of voting participants is voter apathy and that internet voting will not provide a solution to diminish voter apathy. Not only does he state that voting is already quite simple and it does not need to be made easier through internet voting, but he believes that "internet voting is the worst possible choice for democracy." In addition to voter apathy as one of the main problems of internet voting, Harrop touches upon the potential problems of internet voting such as coercion, identity theft, fraud and that voting should be a communal activity.
