Canada’s elections authorities move slowly, carefully to digitize voting – National | Globalnews.ca

With the tap of a tablet, a voter in the Nova Scotia riding of Preston will make history sometime this year, becoming the first citizen to cast an electronic ballot in any Canadian or provincial election.

The decision by Elections Nova Scotia — with the blessings of the Nova Scotia legislature — to allow voters to mark their ‘X’ using a tablet instead of good old-fashioned pencil and paper is the latest example of an election administrator integrating digital technology into the ancient process of voting in the name of improving efficiency, speed and accuracy.

“It’s an evolution of politics,” said Fred DeLorey, who is not only a native of Nova Scotia but is also a veteran of many election campaigns, most recently as the national campaign manager for the federal Conservatives in 2021.

“There was a time when we voted by raising a hand in a room. So there’s always going to be people that want to change and to advance things and to make things easier.”

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N.S. to introduce electronic ballots in upcoming byelection, first in Canada

Among all the federal and provincial elections authorities, Elections Nova Scotia has arguably moved the leading edge when it comes to technology use. For its next general election, scheduled for 2025, Elections Nova Scotia will allow members of the Canadian Forces who are posted overseas at the time of the election to vote online. So far, the Northwest Territories is the only other federal, provincial or territorial jurisdiction to allow internet-based balloting. (The Northwest Territories broke that barrier for its 2019 election.)

Meanwhile, many municipalities have been pushing even further and have incorporated online voting with increasing frequency. Political parties have been doing the same thing for leadership races, most recently in the 2022 federal Conservative leadership race.

The most commonly adopted digital technology, at this point, are machines used to scan paper ballots and quickly tabulate results. British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick, for example, have all used tabulation machines. Alberta will enhance the use of tabulation machines in the election about to get underway in that province and Manitoba will use machines to count ballots for the first time in its history during the fall election there.

Elections Canada, on the other hand, has no plans to introduce technology into the voting process, though it did allow voters to go online to request a paper-based mail-in ballot for the 2021 election. But beyond that, Elections Canada believes a human being casting a paper ballot and a human being processing and counting those paper ballots is still the best way to secure an election. And, indeed, that’s the way it’s been for every single federal election ever: paper ballots and human beings. Elections Canada, in fact, keeps all paper ballots cast in any federal general election or byelection in a warehouse near downtown Ottawa and only disposes of them after 10 years in storage.

Election authorities can only go as far, though, as their elected officials will let them.

“Paper ballots are a fundamental part of our approach to election integrity, and BC’s Election Act expressly prohibits digital voting,” Andrew Watson, a spokesperson for Elections BC, said in an e-mail.

And while chief electoral officers often make recommendations to their legislatures, there is, in some quarters, a hesitation to insert too much technology too quickly into the process mostly out of fear that the election integrity might be compromised.

“One big concern I have is if it’s a tight race and a certain party loses them, coming out and questioning the results of the election, saying, you know, election denial is something that we saw big in the United States. I’d hate to see that here in Canada,” DeLorey said. ‘And that’s something that we got to be very cautious of. ”

Indeed, for Elections Nova Scotia, as with all elections authorities contemplating the introduction of any technology, protecting new systems against hackers, accidental misuse or software failures is paramount.

“We are confident in the integrity of this innovative voting method,” Elections Nova Scotia assistant chief electoral officer Lindsay Rodenkirchen told reporters at a technical briefing in Halifax Wednesday. “Security of the e-ballot system has been designed in consultation with security experts and we conducted threat risk and penetration assessments to the system.”

The vendor working with Elections Nova Scotia is Microsoft Azure and the tablet devices will be Microsoft’s Surface product.

Other election authorities will be watching Elections Nova Scotia’s test with the e-ballot and some provincial elections administrators may dispatch personnel to Preston to watch the system in action.

“We look forward to following the e-voting project in Nova Scotia during the byelection, when it is called, and wish them the best of luck,” said Elections New Brunswick communications director Paul Harpelle.

The historic step to take place this year in Nova Scotia is a good example of the kind of cautious, incremental approach often taken by elections authorities when it comes to technology. The e-ballot involves a voter casting a ballot on a secure tablet under the supervision of elections officials and only during the early voting period. And, as a backup, a paper receipt is issued with each vote cast on the electronic tablet and it will be that paper receipt that will be used in any situation where a recount is required.

For ballots cast the usual way on election day in the Preston byelection, it will be paper ballots marked with a pencil. Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston has yet to call that Preston byelection but must do so so by Oct. 1.

Voting technology or methods can also have partisan implications. The clearest example of that was the use of the mail-in ballot during the pandemic. In every Canadian province that held a pandemic election as well during the 2020 U.S. presidential election, voters who supported progressive parties — the U.S. Democrats or the BC NDP, for example — overwhelmingly embraced mail-in ballots but those who supported small-c conservative parties were more likely to insist on casting a paper ballot in person at a polling station.

“The different voting systems impacts different voting groups differently,” DeLorey said. “Young Canadians may be more inclined to come and vote digitally or online if we ever get to that level. And which parties does that impact? You have to think about that. Traditionally, conservatives don’t do so well with the young vote, so maybe they will be very much opposed to this because of that reason.

“At the same time, (Conservative Leader) Pierre Poilievre currently does seem to be doing very well with the young voter. Maybe Conservatives will be in favour of online voting at some point.”