More young would vote by mobile or web

Young people were interested in voting by text

A third of young people are not planning to vote in a general election this year, but 75 per cent of those said they would if they could do so by text or online, according to a survey.

Two thirds of the respondents (66 per cent) said that they had placed votes on a reality TV show in the past using their mobile, and many expect to be able to do so politically – 89 per cent said they thought voting via text would be possible after the next general election.

But some may be held back by privacy concerns. Of those who would vote if they could do so by text or through social media, only one in five was not concerned about privacy issues and other people finding out who they had voted for.

Almost a quarter (24 per cent) said there could be issues with people voting more than once.

Neil McHugh, co-founder of rightmobilephone.co.uk, which carried out the survey, said: "Our results prove social media and mobile phones could be a very powerful way for political parties to interact and communicate with this generation. Obviously privacy and security issues would be a concern, along with the margin for error, but hopefully in the future it’s something that can be overcome, meaning more of the population would be enfranchised."

Asked whether or not they were planning to vote, 42 per cent of young people claimed they didn’t really understand politics enough to vote and 51 per cent said they couldn’t be bothered to take the time to go to the polling stations.

Alberto Nardelli, founder of Tweetminster.co.uk, a service which promotes e-democracy through Twitter, said: "In the US, mobile campaigning played a central role in the last election, especially in terms of engaging and mobilising first-time voters. It's surprising that in the UK none of the parties place mobile at the core of their campaigns."