Politics+and+Government


 * Political process: voting and elections, lobbying, open government and free movement of information

=__**Electronic Voting**__ =

Electronic voting is also known as **e-voting**.

**__ **How does e-voting work?** __ **
IT systems needed for e-voting:
 * Special voting kiosks
 * Punch cards
 * Optical scan systems
 * Private computer networks (Internet)


 * Advantages:**
 * Equality of access-improved accessibility for disabled people
 * speed (time saving)
 * easy to organize and store in an electronic format
 * Disadvantages:**
 * the posibility of electronic fraud
 * data can be incorrectly input
 * People are reliable on machines and the Internet

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 * Should E-voting machines be outlawed?**

[|Opposition grows to paperless voting] [|E-voting does work] [|Is E-voting safe?] [|Irish reject E-voting, and go back to paper]

[|Estonia claims E-voting first] media type="custom" key="3760905"

=__**Lobbying**__ =

Lobbying means using personal contacts, public pressure, or political action to persuade legislators to vote in a particular manner. This is usually done by e-mail via the internet to let people know/persuade about the votes in order to get as many votes as possible to be elected. Lobbying via the internet is a good way of how to make sure that a lot of people will obtain the information. Moreover this form of lobbying is very cheap and effective because many people nowadays check their e-mail many times per day.

[|Eight ways technology shaped the 2008 US elections]

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 * Government administration: record keeping, tax collection, policy implementation


 * Legislation: policy development, enactment, enforcement and analysis


 * Police: DNA data collection, video surveillance


 * Military: cyberwarfare, smart weapons development, espionage


 * Rebel and terrorist use of IT