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Town will allow remote internet voting for elections

August 4, 2021   ·   0 Comments

There will be an alternative to marking your ballot with a pencil during the next municipal and school board elections.

The Town Clerk’s office has requested that Council consider allowing remote internet voting for the next election.

Town Clerk Pam Fettes made a presentation during the July 26 Town Council meeting requesting Council consider new options when allowing voting procedures.

In 2018, 194 municipalities utilized internet and telephone voting as a way to allow some people to cast a vote without leaving home.

80 per cent of those municipalities used those methods exclusively.

The Municipal Elections Act has established that a Town Council is the approval body of any vote counting equipment or any alternative voting method.

The proposed new method of voting would see voters receive a voter letter indicating two options to cast a ballot. This would include the standard method of casting a ballot on paper at a nearby polling station.

The other option is to allow voters to cast a ballot using the internet.

Once a voter has used either of these methods to cast a ballot, their name is struck from the voter’s list.

The Clerk’s Office said the ease of internet voting allows people to vote at any time prior to an election and up to 8:00 p.m. on an election day.

Currently 92.2 per cent of Ontarians have internet access.

Citing the fact that over the past year-and a-half of the pandemic, many people have new expectations of what can be accomplished via the internet from home, Ms. Fettes said “As a result [it] has changed the expectations of some, not all, but some members of the public. Remote voting has a seamless integration with the voters list. It provides real-time strike-offs and provides candidates with real time access to updated voter’s lists.”

The next elections aren’t scheduled until 2022; however, it is expected there may still be some fall-out from the COVID pandemic at the time.

Allowing people to vote remotely, Ms. Fettes said will help those who are “hesitant to vote in person to avoid situations where they are in close proximity to others. Remote voting will allow them a continued way to cast a ballot and participate in democracy.”

Using other municipalities as an example, it was reported that most people found remote voting to be a positive experience.

Ms. Fettes said security features, like security questions, are part of the internet voting procedure to ensure a person’s vote cannot be hijacked by someone else.

Council did have some questions regarding security procedures for the voting process.

They did respond favourably and voted to allow internet voting in the next election.

By Brian Lockhart
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

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