One of the great promises of e-democracy is the potential it holds for increasing citizen participation. Much of the research related to this topic has focused on inputs, identifying the tools and technologies of e-democracy, or factors associated with adoption and/or diffusion of these technologies across units of governments or public organizations. By contrast there has been less research examining how these inputs translate into outcomes, or impacts that e-democracy has on changes in civic behavior or citizen engagement. Our study helps fill this knowledge gap by examining the impact that a specific set of information communication technologies (ICTs) have on a common form of civic engagement: voting. This research creates and tests two unique measures, the online election information index (OEII) and the e-registration service index (ERSI) to examine the extent to which local governments offer online information and utilities that help to educate voters and promote turnout. The index is tested on a sample of 396 county governments in the US to examine the extent to which governments' use of voting ICTs impacts voter participation, while accounting for other institutional and demographic factors that are known to shape voter turnout. We find that voter turnout is indeed higher in communities where local governments offer more voting ICTs, and the availability of these online resources may be particularly influential in boosting turnout in places where state policies serve to constrain or limit turnout.

电子民主的巨大希望之一就是它具有增加公民参与的潜力。与该主题相关的许多研究都集中在投入，确定电子民主的工具和技术，或与在政府或公共组织中采用和/或传播这些技术相关的因素。相比之下，研究这些投入如何转化为结果的研究较少，或电子民主对公民行为或公民参与度变化的影响。我们的研究通过检查一组特定的信息通信技术（ICT）对公民参与的一种常见形式的影响，来帮助弥补这一知识鸿沟。这项研究创建并测试了两项独特的措施，即在线选举信息索引（OEII）和电子注册服务索引（ERSI），以检查地方政府在多大程度上提供在线信息和实用程序，以帮助教育选民和提高投票率。该指数在美国396个县政府的样本中进行了测试，以检验政府使用ICT投票对投票人参与的影响程度，同时还要考虑其他已知会影响选民投票率的机构和人口因素。