B.C. voters may soon have the option of casting their ballots online in municipal and provincial elections. An Elections BC panel will start studying the voting method as early as September after being asked by the provincial government to research the potential risks and advantages associated with it. The request came almost a year after B.C.’s chief electoral officer Keith Archer recommended the government consider changing legislation to allow for trial-runs of new voting technologies. “Under current legislation that envisions a voting process that is entirely paper-based, Elections BC is unable to conduct trials of these new technologies,” said Archer in a November 2011 report. “Legislators may wish to consider providing greater flexibility to the Chief Electoral Officer to introduce, on a pilot basis, a variety of new voting technologies.” While there are some cities that use online voting, such as Halifax, no provinces in Canada yet do so for provincial elections.
… But there are several issues the panel will have to address as well. In one instance, an electronic voting system crash in Eastern Ontario in October 2010 locked out hundreds of voters during a municipal election. The panel’s report will look into possible technological or logistical barriers, and review other jurisdictions’ best practices. The final report will be submitted to the legislative assembly, but not in time to be implemented for the 2013 provincial election, Main said.
Full Article: Elections BC studying online voting | British Columbia.