Voting for the status quo

By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express

Oshawa will be practicing the same method of voting it used in the last municipal election.

For the upcoming 2022 municipal and school board elections, city council has decided Oshawa will be using optical scan vote tabulators and accessible voting equipment.

Council also voted in favour of having Mayor Dan Carter send a letter to the provincial government requesting the establishment of legal, technical, and operational security standards and guidelines for municipalities.

These guidelines would see the implementation of secure voting via the Internet for elections across Ontario.

As previously reported by The Oshawa Express, the city was leaning towards using Internet and phone as the two primary methods of voting.

However, recent research from Dr. Nicole Goodman at Brock University saw council decide to go in another direction.

“Dr. Goodman’s findings indicate that Internet voting is desirable for election stakeholders in Ontario and is a welcome addition alongside other voting methods to keep pace with societal changes, accommodate electors’ increasingly busy schedules, and to help mitigate factors that may limit voter accessibility of physical locations,” reads the report to council.

In her research, Goodman notes municipal Internet voting is on the rise, but she also points out it is important for residents to receive sufficient education, outreach and communications from the city on how it would work.

She also identified some concerns she has regarding unsupervised Internet voting, including authentication, auditability, and verifiability. She also says security would need to be managed carefully.

“Dr. Goodman recommends that online voting should be thoughtfully researched and implemented; and, that the introduction of online voting should be a deliberate and planned process,” reads the report.

Goodman also indicates it’s important for the provincial government to establish legal, technical, and operational standards for Internet voting.

The report notes while it is important for the city to advance and modernize election methods, it’s important for due diligence to be done.

Councillor John Gray says as the conductor of local elections, the city should be keeping track of any “hanky-panky.”

Mackenzie Moreau, an Oshawa resident, agreed, writing to council that any decision to change the method of voting without public consultation is being made in haste.

“I am of the opinion that, given the subject of this decision and its direct relation to a statutory democratic right, a process of broader public consultation should have been enacted,” writes Moreau.

Moreau adds they believe the city should use a hybrid system, instead of adding Internet and telephone voting on top of the option already in place.