Thunder Bay is poised to join 97 other Ontario municipalities and start allowing its residents to vote by telephone and online.
A report expected to be delivered Monday to council indicates other communities that used alternative methods of voting experienced no major issues, said at-large Coun. Iain Angus, the most recent elected representative to bring the idea to council.
“There are a growing number who are using it and there have been no problems,” Angus said on Friday.
“There have been no breaches, there have been no indications of any misuse of the electoral process – no hacking, no phishing, none of that. I think that will calm a lot of the concerns.”
The security and integrity of the voting process is of the utmost concern, the report acknowledges, stating there are “clearly potential risks to Internet voting systems, as with any electronic system.”
There is also no absolute assurance a denial of service or other form of attack couldn’t happen.
“There are, however, available sophisticated protections that are put in place to mitigate potential risks,” the report reads.
There are a number of forensic tools used to assist against any potential fraud, and systems provide real-time monitoring tools and mechanisms to identify security breaches throughout the process.
“Further, any attempt to vote more than once or influence the outcome of an election is a crime, regardless of the method of election employed,” the report says.
Angus said he believes the report will put the minds of fellow councillors at ease, who late last year requested the matter be referred in order to seek more information about the process.
“The majority, and not a slim majority, of council was in favour of moving toward some sort of alternative voting procedure,” Angus said.
“I’m optimistic that council will approve this and at the next election people will have a greater opportunity to cast a vote.”
It’s the modern age, Angus added.
“If you looked at the last election, there were massive lineups, in part because we may not have had enough polling stations. And we’re limited now because we have to have them in accessible buildings – and there’s not as many of those as there should be,” Angus said.
“By offering online voting, by offering telephone voting, people can do it from the comfort of their own home. It rules out inclement weather. It rules out people with mobility issues and allows those people to vote with the click of a mouse and I think that’s a great way to move forward.”
Angus said it doesn’t necessarily mean more people will cast their ballots.
