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On occasion, when I forget my padlock at home, I have left my gym bag unlocked in the change room. In these instances, I take comfort knowing that most people in my community are honest and would not take my belongings. As of yet, I have not been stolen from. However, continuing this practice might one day have consequences.

This scenario is analogous of implementing internet voting in municipal elections. By exposing our democratic process through online ballot casting and tabulation, we would be at risk of manipulation on a large scale. Our one protection against such criminal action is based on the fact that most of those in our community would not willingly compromise our democratic system.

Over the past few years, many municipalities in the Barrie area have adopted or considered adopting online voting methods. While Barrie itself continues to use electronic tabulators instead of internet voting, Innisfil, Springwater, Oro-Medonte, and Penetanguishene will offer online voting in 2018 municipal elections. This past Monday, Orillia almost followed suit to permit internet voting. However, the Orillia city council narrowly defeated the proposal.

In the days leading up to the vote in Orillia, I talked with Councilor Mason Ainsworth to get a sense for this debate. Ainsworth has been a staunch opponent of internet voting. We started by talking about whether turnout rates might be affected by online voting.

There are a lot of studies out there in regards to the voter turnout of online voting and pretty much all of them say that it doesnt increase turnout. This makes sense because really youre getting the same people who are voting either way.

While there are particular instances where turnout has improved after the implementation of online voting, most studies suggest that online voting does not have the capacity to increase voter turnout. Although access to the polls is improved using these alternative methods, generally speaking, those in the past who do not participate in municipal elections will continue these tendencies under a new voting system.

Additionally, there are significant drawbacks associated with online voting. The first that Ainsworth talked about was voter fraud.

In regards to fraud were not sure, and staff has openly said in the [council] meeting that they wouldnt know if this happened: If somebody else is voting for somebody, he said.

Ainsworth went on to suggest that online voting methods could allow a member of a household to vote on the behalf of another, and that such actions could be carried out with bad intentions. According to Ainsworth, our current system guards against this problem, by obligating voters to mark their ballot in privacy.

Internet hacking was also a consideration for Ainsworth. After being asked about the security measures taken by the Orillia city council, he felt that the plan in place would not be adequate to prevent hacking.

Do we have a whole internet security staff group at City Hall? We dont. We have a couple folks in IT; but we dont have folks who are specifically there to make sure all our stuff is secure.

Although, to date, no Ontario municipalities experimenting with online voting have been hacked, the potential exists, especially without adequate security measures in place. Along with these concerns, Ainsley suggested that there are also problems around the capacity of hackers.

I was reading an article the other day, there was a [sixteen-year-old] student and he hacked Microsoft and Sony, which are two giant major corporations, he said.

This scenario is not a one off. In our conversation, we discussed just a few of the major institutions and elections that had been hacked: the Pentagon, Bitcoin, the 2012 Federal NDP leadership race, and the American Democratic Party. Internet hacking can happen to any institution, no matter the security system in place.

While there could be some benefits to online voting such as access for voters and potential savings for municipalities, there are also risks of large-scale manipulation. Perhaps, as Ainsworth suggested, it is best to wait until adequate security technology for internet voting becomes available down the road. In the meantime, municipalities would be better off experimenting with other alternative voting methods to improve turnout and convenience.

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From the Desk of Jay Fallis: To internet vote, or not to internet vote - BarrieToday