Tomorrow, the Wilfrid Laurier University Students Union (WLUSU) will conduct the first online election for WLSU President ever. This is in response to the past 5 years of low voter turnout at on-campus polling stations located in typically high traffic areas such as the Science Atrium, the Concourse and the SBE Atrium. Despite their location in these areas, the percentage of voters actually participating in WLUSU elections has been extremely low when compared to the nearly 15,000 possible voters.
The total cost of the online voting system is $16,425 with an annual fee of $2,625 payable to the hosting site. Last year, $7,500 was spent on paper ballots alone. When you factor in the added costs of promotional materials and extra staff hours to run the election, the cost would be almost identical to the cost of the entire voting system. Other features of tomorrows elections include:
- Holding the election over two days v.s only one
- Student infromation and votes will be stored on two separate internet databases to protect voter's identities
- Since any computer is now a polling station, campaigning on election day (public appearances, posting signs, etc... is now banned
-Candidate profiles will be available once a student logs in so the oppertunity is available to make an informed choice
-Students will have 45 minutes to vote once they log on
In my opinion, this is the smartest thing WLUSU has ever done and trust me, they've done some pretty stupid things (which I could probably dedicate a whole blog site to). So, why have I just ranted on and on about the features of WLSU's online voting system when I'm supposed to be talking about Canadian voting? Well, it's because I think this model could be applied to Federal elections. Thus, I am in favour of an online system for Canada for the 5 reasons I listed in Part 1.
However, the two most important reasons I feel are 1) Online voting would make voting easier and 2) Young Canadians are more likely to vote. Perhaps for security purposes, each registered voter would recieve their voter's "postcard" in the mail. Instead of having their polling location, it would list their username and password to log into a governemnt voting site. From the username, the site could create the correct ballot with the correct candidates running in the voter's area. The electronic form would only let the registered voter select one option for each "question." After completing the ballot (only the "questions" they choose to) they could submit it to Elections Canada which would then tabulate the votes. This would allow for quicker results.
In this format, young Canadians are more likely to vote as well. It is in a simple format and its something that can be done quickly. Perhaps reminders could be posted on registered voter's Facebook and Twitter pages reminding them to go and vote.
While I am fully aware of the negative aspects, I just feel like the good out weigh the bad on the issue of online voting. You think its stupid? Alright fine. You can go out to the polling station in the blizzard while I sit at home and drink my hot chocolate. Feel free to comment if you feel I'm wrong.
Also, if there is anything you'd like me to talk about, leave a comment as well. However, next time, I think I will be doing a post on how we obtain our political values and how and why they change as we age.
Cheers for now. AM
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