Trust in Internet Voting: preliminary results of a QMethodology Experiment in Estonia

Trust and distrust are being transformed by the adoption of technologies, and their relevance increases when technology relates to the democratic functioning of our societies, as is the case with Internet voting. This paper examines how trust/distrust discourses are constructed around the use of Internet voting in Estonia, the country with the most extensive experience in its implementation. To address this issue, we used a mixed-method approach, combining expert interviews (16) with a Q-methodology experiment involving voters (25). Our findings indicate that trust/distrust discourses point in different directions. Trust is associated with positive experiences using Internet voting and with the institutional capacity to successfully develop an e-governance environment, while distrust is linked to its political dimension and the potential risks of manipulation. These results are valuable for understanding how trust/distrust discourses are built in well-established Internet voting systems and offer insights for developing strategies to foster trust or mitigate distrust.