One important use of technology is as a means to inform voters about other electoral technology. There are essentially two aspects to informing voters about electoral technology: teaching voters how to use technology with which they might come in contact during the voting process, and informing voters about the electoral technology in order to gain their acceptance of and trust in the technology.
Informing voters about how to use technology for the voting process can be seen as an exercise in training the voters. Voters will typically have a brief relationship with an election management body, and an even briefer interaction with election technology. Training voters to use election technology can happen during that brief interaction, and it can be designed happen quickly. Perhaps the best kind of voter training is the kind they do not even notice.
For a detailed discussion on this issue, see Training Voters.
Where new electoral technology is being introduced that will affect the public, it is important to include the public as stakeholders in the process and to gain their trust in the new system. This may entail a large scale communication campaign to inform the voting population of the proposed changes (see Voter Education). Before attempting large-scale communication, it may be desirable to use market research methods to test proposals with focus groups or by surveying samples of the population.
For more information on seeking public acceptance of new electoral technology, see Readiness to Assimilate Technology.
