A LOT of debate is going on - much of it online - about whether we will ever get any nearer towards achieving an e-election either in Scotland or the UK as a whole.
This would be one where full and effective use of electronic communications gets the message out and enhances the democratic process towards an eventual result.
Two years ago, a Mori poll conducted on behalf of the Electoral Commission, the indep
endent body responsible for promoting participation in elections, reported that more than half (60 per cent) of the UK population surveyed were more willing to cast their vote in local elections electronically.
In the run-up to the recent General Election it was clear that internet tools - like e-mail, websites and weblogs - became central to the electoral process.
The Hansard Society is doing its bit to engage young people under the voting age, with a website forum called Headsup where they can talk to their heart's content about what the various parties have to offer - or otherwise.
Channel 4 has commissioned a UK version of the US Factcheck site to scrutinise claims made by politicians and point out errors or unwanted assertions.
Another site called WriteToThem has been developed from the FaxYourMP site, enabling people to send e-mails to their MSPs, MPs, councillors and MEPs. By typing in their postcode, users can find out who represents them at almost every level of government and easily contact them.
Tom Steinberg, one of the project's architects, describes it as "transformative", with a profound effect on the democratic process, as 60 per cent of those using the service have never previously contacted their chosen elected representative.
The BBC has an active UK voters' panel who, throughout the campaign, were asked to share their views in text and video, using 3G mobile phones and video cameras.
Edinburgh-based postgraduate Andy McKay-Hubbard, from the International Teledemocracy Centre at Napier University, is working on ways to help community councils become more inclusive and responsive.
He believes the web can help local government to be more transparent.
Technology analyst Bill Thompson told BBC Online that net watchers are still trying to decide whether the last General Election will be hailed the UK's first internet election - or will the political parties have fumbled their online campaigns?
Mr Thompson points out it's usual to hedge one's bets and argue it is too soon to tell. But he has decided to break with tradition and calls this one for the internet, claiming the political parties have unquestionably finally got it, as far as effective e-mail and web use is concerned.
Furthermore, he predicts, the impact should be significant enough to give the national campaigns reason to question their spend on more traditional promotional tools such as street billboards and party political broadcasts.
Mr Thompson claims online campaigning is the way forward and points to BT's announcement that it now has more than five million broadband customers.
He describes this as an "amazing achievement and a good sign" that broadband has managed to make the shift from being a technology for early adopters and into the mainstream.
However, come future election nights, we still face the reality all across Britain of a veritable army of vote counters spending hours at tables groaning under the weight of thousands of slips of paper to be counted by hand.
If there's a recount, the whole process starts again.
At every government election, strict procedural security measures must be in place. In any electronically-based election in the future, these would have to apply from both technical and procedural standpoints, to make the whole business open to scrutiny.
But e-elections can become a reality in time, as voters grow in confidence about going online to make decisions about their lives, including just who should represent them at Westminster or Holyrood.
Bob Downes is the director of BT Scotland
The full article contains 669 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
