Information and Communication Technologies in Electoral Processes: How do they help voters abroad?

The use of information and communication technology in electoral processes has become commonplace, being seen simply as another tool in the hands of policy-makers to improve the quality and effectiveness of public policy and representation. There have been diverse experiences in this area, and the instances in which ICT has been used in the mentioned processes differ. This article analyses and evaluates systematically, for the first time in literature, the incorporation of ICT when voting from abroad, paying attention to the practices of some of those countries that have implemented these technologies in one way or another, into their voting processes. Hence, by introducing the Electronic Voting From Abroad Index, this paper observes at which phase of the process the technology is being used and how this vary from country to country.