To vote or not to vote ...

• Position: Only about 20 percent of ARMA International's members vote in elections

Why do only about 20 percent of ARMA International's members vote in elections? According to a survey recently conducted by ARMA, the overwhelming reason is that many of our members do not feel qualified to vote because they do not know enough about the issues or the candidates. Almost three-quarters of the respondents to the electronic survey cited this reason, in fact. The next most common answer, received from 12 percent of the respondents, was a lack of interest or investment in the process.

The survey was distributed electronically to 8,908 members; 1,190 (13 percent) responded. The goal of the survey was to gain a better understanding of why more of our members do not vote and to get some basic feedback on electronic voting, which was introduced in the special election conducted this past summer.

Fifty-one percent of the responses were received from the 603 members who had opted to vote electronically. However, only 71 percent of those individuals actually cast a vote. Again, the primary reason was that they did not feel qualified to vote. Nearly 30 percent stated that they consciously chose not to vote in this election, while 17 percent forgot to cast their vote.

Despite initial problems with the electronic ballot, 69 percent...