Will remote electronic voting systems increase participation?

Remote electronic voting systems (REVSs) have become a viable mechanism for official political elections. As an entirely automatic, electronic, technology-based voting environment, REVSs can enable remote voting, facilitate monitoring, voting and tallying, eliminate manual registration verification, and report immediate and accurate results. However, it is uncertain whether the use of REVSs could increase citizens ’ participation in elections. This study examines citizens ’ perceived acceptance of remote electronic voting system in the United States. By collecting the data from multiple sources, we compare the participation intention of using REVS among voters and non-voters, and citizens of different ages. We found that web-based REVS usage can significantly increase the participation of non-voting citizens, and that young adults have a strong preference to using REVSs. The implications and the recommendations about the use of REVS are discussed in detail. Key words: remote electronic voting systems, voting participation, web-based REVS,