[fvc-wat-disc] Waterloo mulls internet voting - Waterloo Chronicle

[Bob Jonkman]

One of the principles of our electoral systems is anonymity. Another
principle is "One person, one ballot", or singular voting. Both
objectives are reasonably easy to do with paper ballots - hand out one
ballot to a voter, then cross that voter's name off the list. The vote
cast is both anonymous and singular.

But when people are allowed to vote anonymously on their home computer
there's no way to determine if they're voting more than once. So to
prevent multiple votes you'd have to track voters with a unique ID; but
that can then be correlated with the vote cast, destroying anonymity.

Fundamentally, anonymous and singular voting is not achievable through
computerized at-home voting. In a report "Technology and the Voting
Process" the conclusion of Elections Canada was that the integrity of
electoral process is a cornerstone of our democracy, and a decision to
move to electronic voting should not be made lightly, without much more
study[1]. "Much more study" has not been done by our municipal government.

And don't get me started on the number of home computers that are
infected with viruses, the number of people that are defrauded through
identity theft, and the number of times government loses data from their
laptops and thumb drives...

--Bob.

[1] pp. 58-60, "Technology and the Voting Process", KPMG and Sussex
Circle for Elections Canada, 1998.
http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=res&dir=rec/tech/tec&document=index&lang=e


Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com>         http://sobac.com/sobac/
SOBAC Microcomputer Services              Phone: +1-519-669-0388
6 James Street, Elmira ON Canada  N3B 1L5  Cell: +1-519-635-9413
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On 13-01-20 04:20 PM, Eleanor Grant wrote:
> What do Fair Voters think about this?
>
> Eleanor
>
> --------------------------------
>
> City looking at e-voting in time for 2014 municipal elections
> Published on January 16th, 2013
>
> By James Jackson, Chronicle staff
>
> http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/city-looking-at-e-voting-in-time-for-2014-municipal-elections/
>
> The City of Waterloo is going to investigate the possibility of using
> Internet and telephone voting in time for the 2014 municipal election.
>
> Council approved a request for proposals on Monday night, a joint request
> with the cities of Cambridge and Kitchener.
>
> Tim Jackson of the Barnraiser council urged councillors to embrace the
> technology, citing Markham (the first city to introduce electronic voting
> in 2003) and more than 40 other municipalities that have used the
> technology since.
>
> “As the most intelligent community in the world it’s almost a given that we
> should be embracing the concept of electronic voting,” Jackson said.
>
> Not every councillor was convinced, however. Coun. Angela Vieth raised
> concerns about voter fraud and hacking, as did Coun. Jeff Henry.
>
> “I don’t want to suggest there has been no issues, and if we were the first
> I could understand that (concern),” Jackson said, whose council was given a
> seat on the review committee by city councillors Monday as well.
>
> “If anyone has the internal capabilities (to prevent fraud), I’ve got to
> believe we can.”
>
> Jackson compared the concerns of Internet voting to the early worries of
> entering credit card information online — now a common practice.
>
> Henry, who grew up in Markham and participated in electronic voting at the
> University of Waterloo, voted against the proposal.
>
> “My skepticism comes with that knowledge,” he said. “(The University of
> Waterloo) hasn’t necessarily gotten it figured out.”
>
> Coun. Scott Witmer also voted against the idea, countering Jackson’s
> statement about credit cards by saying with credit card fraud you know a
> crime has been committed as soon as you look at your balance.
>
> Voter fraud, however, would be much more difficult to prove.
>
> Electronic voting wouldn’t be any cheaper, city clerk Susan Greatrix
> indicated. Instead, it will likely add to the costs of the electoral
> process. “It would be much more expensive than traditional voting,” she
> said, noting Cambridge was leaning towards to idea of Internet voting,
> while Kitchener was leaning away from it.
>
> The City of Kitchener rejected the idea in December, saying it would double
> election costs, while Cambridge voted in favour of it in October.
>
> Coun. Scian liked the idea of bringing the ballot box to the voter, saying
> it was a “logical path forward into the future.”
>
> She said many of the most active Internet users are right here in Waterloo,
> and cited the results of last year’s municipal vote in Halifax, which saw
> more than half of all votes submitted online or through the phone.
>
> No decisions were made about voting methods in 2014, but one is expected
> later this year.
>
> Categories: News
> Tags: election, electronic voting
>
>
>
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