Voting Online: Technology and Democracy in Municipal Elections

In an attempt to reverse declining rates of voter participation, governments around the world are turning to electronic voting to improve the efficiency of vote counts, and increase the accessibility and equity of the voting process for electors who may face additional barriers. The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified this trend. Voting Online focuses on Canada, where the technology has been widely embraced by municipal governments with one of the highest rates of use in the world. In the age of cyber elections, Canada is the only country where governments offer fully remote electronic elections and where traditional paper voting is eliminated for entire electorates. Municipalities are the laboratories of electoral modernization when it comes to digital voting reform. We know conspicuously little about the effects of these changes, particularly the elimination of paper ballots. Relying on surveys of voters, non-voters, and candidates in twenty Ontario cities, and a survey of administrators across the province of Ontario, Voting Online provides a holistic view of electronic elections unavailable anywhere else.

Nicole Goodman is associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Brock University. Helen A. Hayes is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University. R. Michael McGregor is associate professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. Scott Pruysers is associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Dalhousie University. Zachary Spicer is associate professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at York University.