Online voting: Thunder Bay council to get yet another report

Superior Morning4:08Electronic Voting

City councillors once again spoke about 'electronic voting' last night - we'll hear why it's being brought up again.

City councillors in Thunder Bay are one step closer to approving electronic voting for the next municipal election.

Councillors like Trevor Giertuga say theyve come around to accepting online and telephone voting.

"Last time I voted against internet voting, but this time, I believe I'm going to vote in favour of it, he said.

But I don't want to do it as a knee-jerk reaction based on frustrations from this election. I'm just changing my mind on this one.

Giertuga supported a call to ask the city clerk to examine electronic voting. Council received a very similar report about four years ago, which was turned down by council.

Giertuga, along with others, said they wanted the two new councillors to get all of the information they did four years ago, to learn about electronic voting.

But council newcomer Shelby Ch'ng said she's already made up her mind, and supports voting online.

"I don't believe that fear of technology would be a reason why we don't do something, she said.

Ninety-six other municipalities are already online. We are so behind we can learn from them. I'm sure people were afraid of carrier pigeons when they came out too."

'No 100% guarantee'

The discussion took place after Shift Network president Peter Marchl made a presentation to council that highlighted the benefits of online voting

Some councillors noted that, in some communities where online voting was available, voter turnout was boosted.

Councillor Aldo Ruberto said he has always supported the traditional method of voting, until this last election, but now is the time to embrace voting online.

For the last five elections, there's always been an issue; there's always been a problem.

As for online voting, he noted "there is no 100 per cent guarantee. If anybody wants to infiltrate any type of system you have, they will do it. As mentioned, online voting has been accepted in other municipalities. Why are they doing it?"

City clerk John Hannam said it will take a few months to find out from other municipalities about the success of their online votes.

He said all that information will get compiled into a report for the new year.