Is now the time for Internet voting? BC's independent panel on Internet voting.

AuthorArcher, Keith
PositionBritish Columbia

British Columbia's Independent Panel on Internet Voting examined research exploring the merits and drawbacks of Internet voting. The author, who chaired of the panel, reports on its terms of reference, key evidence and its conclusions and recommendations. He notes that at the present time, the benefits of Internet voting are limited while the challenges of successfully implementing Internet voting are many and complex. The panel has recommended against universal Internet voting at the present time and suggested that if it is implemented it should be limited to people with specific accessibility challenges, co-ordinated province-wide, employ independent technical experts and be measured against the key principles established by the committee.

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Following an invitation of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, the Independent Panel on Internet Voting (the panel) was formed by the Chief Electoral Officer of British Columbia on August 9, 2012 to examine opportunities and challenges related to the potential implementation of Internet-based voting in provincial or local government elections in BC. The panel met between September 2012 and October 2013, reviewed the existing and evolving literature and spoke to a variety of experts in the fields of technology, Internet security and electoral administration. The panel examined research detailing both the benefits of and challenges to implementing Internet voting and heard from experts strongly in favour of and strongly opposed to the idea of implementing Internet voting in BC. The panel published a preliminary report in fall 2013 and a final report with recommendations to the Legislative Assembly in February 2014. This paper reviews the composition and terms of reference of the panel, reviews the key evidence it considered, and reports on its conclusions and recommendations.

Context

Many jurisdictions in Canada and elsewhere have considered implementing Internet voting for public elections. Perhaps the most notable observation is not on how many jurisdictions have introduced and continue to use Internet voting, but rather how few of them have done so. Notwithstanding the widespread adoption of various forms of information technology in many aspects of modern life, from banking to shopping to dating, there has been a relatively slow take-up in using the public Internet for public elections in most of the world's democracies. Proponents of Internet voting often point to cases in which Internet voting has been used in public elections as evidence that existing technology provides the requisite privacy and security provisions. Opponents of Internet voting, in contrast, often focus on the fundamentally different challenge provided by election administration in comparison with other aspects of technology's use, particularly the need to separate an individual's personal identity with their vote, as a principal reason that Internet voting does not provide the level of integrity that paper ballots do. The purpose of BC's Independent Panel on Internet Voting was to get beyond the rhetoric and examine the reality of Internet voting.

Three key developments led to the forming of the Independent Panel on Internet Voting. In March 2011, the City of Vancouver requested approval from the Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development to use Internet voting for the November 2011 Local Government Elections. Vancouver's elected officials and administration were aware that Internet voting was permitted in local elections both in Ontario and in Nova Scotia, and wished to have similar authority to use Internet voting in their jurisdiction. The request was not granted and the 2011 Local Government

Elections were held in the traditional manner. In August 2011, Elections BC submitted Discussion Paper: Internet Voting to the Legislative Assembly to further public dialogue on the topic, and in November 2011, the Chief Electoral Officer submitted the Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on Recommendations for Legislative Change to the Legislative Assembly. Of the four recommendations in the report, one entitled "Trialing New Voting Technologies" suggested that "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." This recommendation was intended to cover a host of technologies including, but not limited to, Internet voting and to increase the possibilities for further detailed assessment of new voting technologies in BC.

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