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1st Real Internet-Option Election in North America
gpmap writes "From the London Free Press: As voters across Ontario were preparing to head to the polls today to elect their municipal leaders, a technological first was quietly taking place in the easternmost reaches of the province. About 100,000 voters the counties of Prescott-Russell and Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry were registered to cast their ballots online. Under a new system developed by CanVote Inc., an eastern Ontario startup company, registered voters in 11 area municipalities had the option of voting via the Internet or telephone. "I believe we're the first to do a real full Internet election in North America," said Joe Church, president of CanVote Inc. "People vote by Internet or telephone at their choice. There is no conventional ballot at all." Voters were issued a PIN number with conventional registration cards mailed to area households. Since Nov. 5, people have been logging on to a CanVote website to vote. Church said the new system makes democracy more accessible by removing such barriers to voting as limited mobility or even poor weather." Of course, systems like ProxyVote have been around for a while, but those are commercial issues, rather then state issues.
The same way databases can be altered so can paper (here I come with a bucket full of ballots and whooops, into the trash they go where I've cleverly hid a similar bucket with the results I want to be counted). If you have all faith in paper ballots please research Louisiana election fraud, apparently in the mighty south, the dead rise to vote every year - the buggers.
The one barrier it doesn't remove, however, is the economic one that provides Internet access to some but far from all.
The article says they can vote via phone. So you only have to make sure that everyone has access to a telephone, which seems reasonable.
However, there are still problems with this scheme: vote buying/coercion and lack of verifiability being the main ones.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
FYI - you don't need to be registered to vote in Canada. You can just show up with your driver's licence.
Private elections are another matter. In the same Canada, Mountain Co-op has been running these elections for a while. Whenever you buy some mountain gear (or anything for that matter) from them, you become a member of the co-op. As such, you have a say in how the system is run and you get to elect the board of directors. Election implementation is overseen by PWC or E&Y, and you get a package in the mail containg the election information.
"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that ones work is terribly important." -BRussell
Too bad they forgot to mention the Town of Markham, billed as Canada's Technology Capital (just north of Toronto). Apparently 11,700 residents registered to vote online this year in this municipal election. (note: it's not a terribly small down - with a population of 190,000)
I was sent the information on how to vote online, but I just don't trust it, what with no paper trail. The elections are today, and I plan on going and filling in my old-fashioned "x in the circle" paper ballot.
'Course the mayor (Don Cousens) is a shoe-in. He's been mayor since forever and there are no viable alternative candidates. Don doesn't seem to be even bothering advertising his platform much - all I've seen is about one or two election signs around town. All the action is between the city council or the regional council positions.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
The voting process here is one sad joke, anyway. If you're not on the voter's list, all you have to do to vote is show up at the polls with a piece of ID that shows your address. They don't even ask for proof of citizenship. The enumeration process (whereby you get on the voter's list) itself is pathetic. I received a voter's card for the provincial election (in early October), but not for the municipal election -- this is in Toronto. One person who did receive a voter's card for the municipal election, though, was my grandfather, who has been dead for over a year and who had been mentally incapacitated for years before. There've also been stories of 13 year old children and even pets being enumerated and receiving voter's cards. And if you do get a voter's card, you're absolutely golden. They let you in and let you vote without even making you show your ID to prove that you are who you say you are.
Here in Canada.. it is possible for weather to be the reason people don't come out and vote. If you've just spent an hour and 30minutes driving through the snow in a normal 25minute drive, you may think twice about the 15minute drive to the nearest polling station.
No, this is
If you were black and lived in Florida this might just allow you to vote instead of being turned away from the voting booths
Provide one single, actual instance, please.
What's that? None? That's what I thought.
Also true in Canada. We have to ask for it, but we are constitutionally allowed up to 3 consecutive hours. Should be ample time.
From an investigative standpoint, altering paper trails leave two things:
1) Witnesses
2) Physical evidence
It is a lot harder to alter physical evidence than it is to run an SQL statement.