Online Voting Pilot Project

I will be bringing forward a motion to the next council meeting asking for the City Clerk to report back to Council on what it would take to do an online voting pilot in the November 2011 civic election in Vancouver.

Having studied and advocated for changes that open up government and remove electoral barriers to women, under-35s and other under-represented demographics for a number of years (feeling old now), online voting has always been a bit challenging for me to embrace.

But, the evidence is mounting that if the problem is low voter turn out -- especially the "bookends" of under 35 voters and over 65 voters, the former well-studied but the latter not so much and decreasing in voting all the time due to mobility challenges -- then online voting offers a solution, although the problem has gotten big enough that it's by no means the only solution.

Since online voting was first discussed in the early part of the last decade the internet has come a very long way and municipalities across Canada have also come a long way in their adoption of online voting technology.

The motion is below and you can read an article from the Vancouver Sun that talks about this motion and other municipalities looking to move in the same direction.

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MOTION ON NOTICE  

Online Voting pilot project

MOVER: Councillor Andrea Reimer
SECONDER:

WHEREAS less than 35% of eligible voters in Vancouver cast ballots in the last two civic elections;

WHEREAS voter turnout is considered an important indicator of social cohesion and vital to a healthy democracy;

WHEREAS research conducted by Elections Canada on voter turn out in the last federal election found that 57% of non-voters cited time pressures that prevented them from getting to a voting place in person;

WHEREAS Elections Canada will be conducting an online voting pilot in the 2013 federal election;

WHEREAS online voting can greatly improve accessibility by increasing the time and place options available to voters to cast a ballot;

WHEREAS online voting is used in more than three dozen Canadian municipalities ranging from 44 municipalities in Ontario, such as Markham, ON which piloted online voting in 2003, to Halifax, Nova Scotia which conducted successful pilots in a 2008 general election and 2009 by-election;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
THAT the City Clerk report to Council on the feasibility of conducting an online voting pilot in the 2011 municipal elections or, if 2011 is not feasible, what the earliest date for a pilot would be.

 

 

Comments

[Paul Gill]

Right on Andrea! Please let us know what we can do to help with this project!

[Pedro J. Mora]

Good starting point Andrea, eventually we will all realize the idea of initiative and referenda, not just on politicians,but on all civic policies. as proposed be www.nowpolling.ca

Thank you for pioneering the idea of increasing public participation, which will lead to "Perpetual Direct Democracy".

[Shawn Price]

I understand this motion was approved today. Thanks so much for putting this forward. I look forward to the results.