Cast in paper

Colchester Council votes against electronic ballots

TRURO, N.S. – Colchester County voters will continue to use paper ballots when they head to the polls in October for the 2020 municipal elections.

After considering the option of electronic voting this fall, Colchester council decided to stay with the status quo of paper ballots only, particularly since there was no proof a new system would draw more people to the polls.

“Electronic voting is like any other voting, people come out to the polls if there is an issue or they want change,” Mayor Christine Blair said.

Research by staff determined e-voting would be expensive. It could also open the process up to security issues or jeopardize secrecy.

Projected cost for e-voting software was approximately $90,000, plus costs of maintaining paper ballots.

A staff report cited conclusions of a 2013 Internet and Telephone Voting in Nova Scotia report which indicated “… while most would agree that online voting is consistent with our increasingly online society, the basic questions of how to maintain the security, validity and integrity of our elections has not yet, in our opinion, been satisfactorily answered.”

That’s in part because security of Internet transactions cannot be guaranteed and there’s the potential of hardware or power malfunctions that could occur during the voting process.

The report said research conducted by the Municipality of Kings indicated the cost of e-voting software in Pictou County for the 2016 election was $76,000. With inflation, however, current costs were projected at approximately $90,000, in addition to paper ballots, if a hybrid system were used. Following that analysis, Kings County opted to continue using only paper ballots for the upcoming October election.

Remote e-voting has been used successfully from a technical perspective, by Halifax Regional Municipality since 2008 and either hybrid or e-voting is used by a number of other Nova Scotia municipalities.

However, figures provided to council by staff show that of the eight Nova Scotia municipalities that used either electronic voting or a hybrid (paper ballots and evoting) method for the 2016 election, only Pictou County showed an increase in voters from the 2012 municipal election. The 2016 election marked the first year Pictou County switched to e-voting.

In 2012, the Regional Municipality of Cape Breton and the districts of Argyle, Chester, Clare and Digby all saw increases in voter turnout for the first time after they switched to e-voting. But those numbers trended downward in 2016 – in some cases to below the 2008 numbers – for the second time e-voting was in place.

Lunenburg, which saw a decrease in voter turnout between 2008 and 2012, when only paper ballots were used, continued with its downward trend in 2016 after e-voting was introduced.

Blair predicted Colchester council will revisit the issue in the future. From her perspective, though, the key to attracting more voters is through “education, learning and awareness” to help convey the concept of why they should vote.”

“I think it is crucial to the voters to keep them informed,” she said. “I think it will be discussed again.