Perception of e-gov shifting

The Hart-Teeter e-government poll

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have altered the public's perception of e-government. Americans now see it as a key tool for catching and prosecuting terrorists and for coordinating government responses to bioterrorism attacks, according to a new poll.

Surveys conducted by the Hart-Teeter polling organization and released Feb. 26 found that 70 percent of Americans believe e-government can help agencies such as the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local law enforcement coordinate a response to an emergency. Seventy-seven percent think that similar information sharing can help agencies coordinate a response to a public health threat or bioterrorism attack.

Furthermore, 90 percent favor e-government systems that would help federal, state and local law enforcement agencies exchange information to catch and prosecute criminals and terrorists. In a different survey a year before the terrorist attacks, the public looked to e-government chiefly as a way to access services and learn more about what government was doing — and thus hold government accountable.

Both polls were conducted by Hart-Teeter for the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government. The current results are based on two surveys of about 1,500 total people conducted in November 2001.

Public understanding of e-government as a way to improve operations such as information sharing shows that "Americans view e-government as going beyond Web sites," said Albert Edmonds, president of EDS' Government Information Solutions division, which paid for the poll.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, 57 percent of those polled said they were willing to give up some privacy if it helps law enforcement authorities track down terrorists. However, 39 percent said they did not want their privacy violated or civil liberties abridged to help fight terrorism.

Information technology will be a key tool in counterterrorism efforts because it can break down "bureaucratic barriers and collect, analyze and provide valuable information in real time to decision-makers from the White House to firehouses and kitchen tables across the country," said Patricia McGinnis, president and chief executive officer of the Council for Excellence in Government.

Overall, 42 percent of those polled "feel positive toward e-government," compared to the 35 percent who felt that way when polled in August 2000. But the positive feelings haven't allayed the public's most basic e-government fear: Sixty-four percent of those polled say they remain "extremely concerned about hackers breaking into government computers." The big worry is that hackers will gain access to personal information and use it to steal identities.

Similarly, only 35 percent of Internet users said they think it is safe to pay a ticket or a fine with a credit card on a government Web site. Commercial Internet sites got a higher safety rating: 45 percent said they thought it was safe to buy items from commercial Web sites. By comparison, in August 2000, 36 percent thought it was safe to buy from commercial sites.

The most surprising finding in the 2000 poll was that 54 percent of the public expected the Internet to make it easier to hold government accountable for what it does or fails to do. The November 2001 surveys showed that the public's belief that e-government can improve accountability had increased to 62 percent.

One e-government feature that is losing support is online voting. Sixty-three percent of Americans oppose online voting, and among those who favor it, support has dropped from 38 percent in August 2000 to 33 percent today.