Transition to Electronic Voting and Citizen Participation

This paper draws attention to the need of a systematic approach to introducing electronic voting systems and presents empirical results from a pilot project by the Provincia Autonoma di Trento, Italy. Main attributes of this experience are the constant monitoring of the social impact and the development of a technological solution in accordance to the comments provided by the users themselves. We suggest that no sudden switch to a new form of ballot should be imposed on electors but rather that action research is to be fostered in order to uncover and preserve the traditional and symbolic connotations embedded in the