Bringing elections into the digital age
New online tool simplifies registration process: Check, update or add voter information
ELECTIONS ONTARIO is launching a voter-registration drive across Ontario and bringing the process into the digital age.
“If you look at the process we use, it is the same process our grandfather’s used,” Ontario’s Chief Electoral Officer Greg Essensa told The Standard. “You go to the poll on a date and time when we tell you, you put an X on a piece of paper, you fold it up, and we count it by hand.
“There is beauty in the simplicity of that system, but it is out of sync with our current society.
“Technology is used everywhere. What we need to do now is build technology into the voting process in a very principled and measured approach.
“We never want to lose sight of the core covenants of our democracy — integrity; transparency; one person, one vote; and the secrecy of the ballot.
“We need to begin the modernization process but not sacrifice any of those core covenants of our democratic institutions.”
The new online tool — eregistration.elections.on.ca — allows voters to register in advance online.
Essensa and the Elections Ontario team are headed to Niagara as part of Voter Registration Month.
They will be in Niagara Falls at the Niagara Home and Garden Show at the Scotiabank Convention Centre on March 23.
Residents will have the chance to register on-site on an iPad and get more info about registering to vote.
This new online tool simplifies the registration process by allowing Ontarians to check, update or add their voter information online in a few easy steps.
Most Ontario residents are already registered to vote, but with electoral districts increasing from 107 to 124 this year, it is important for voters to confirm their information is correct, Essensa said.
One of the key targets for Elections Ontario is the younger age group of first-time voters, Essensa said.
The new systems is set up to allow 16and 17-year-olds to pre-register so when they turn 18, they're already in the system.
“One of the challenges we have in the 18 to 24 demographic is they are the most transient,” Essensa said. “Some are still at college or university and are staying there through the course of the summer.”
Others are returning home to their parents’ house, which might be in some other part of the province.
“One of the things we have tried to do with young people is, starting in September, we went to all 50 university and college campuses as part of the registration drive.
“We are working to try and make sure we get them the correct information on how to vote.
“We improve our chances of having a future voter the sooner we introduce youth to the electoral process.”