Online Voting Saves Canadian Town $35,000, Increases Voter Turnout
4:59 pm in Increasing Voter Turnout, Online Voting, Voting Trends by Votenet Updates
In 2010, the town of Cobourg in Southern Ontario switched to a 100% paperless election, offering voters the chance to vote online or by telephone — but no longer by paper ballots. Voters without internet or telephone access could vote using electronic voting booths at one of two polling places on election day.
This week the city released an analysis of its election to determine if the gradual switch to paperless was a success. The results showed that voter turnout increased to 47.3% from 44.9% in 2006, which was the last year they had a 100% paper election. In addition, the budget for the 2006 paper-ballot election was almost $90,000, and the 2010 paperless election cost $52,460.
Municipal Clerk Lorraine Brace also said the switch to online voting had other benefits, including faster election results, an increase in votes cast in long-term care facilities and an increase in the number of seniors who used the computer for the first time (see post on Will Older Voters Embrace Online Voting?).
The council discussed ways to improve the paperless voting system for 2011, including creating a receipt for voters to let them know their votes had been accepted, as well as additional physical polling stations in high-density areas of town.
Congratulations to the town of Cobourg. This is quite a compelling story reflecting the opposite result of what many would predict: the disenfranchisement of older voters as a result of moving the election online. I’ll be interested to follow the story through their next online election in 2011.
Increasing voter turnout and cutting expenses are two leading examples of why making the switch to online voting makes so much sense! I hope cities across the US will soon be following the trend. Additionally, if Cobourg had used eBallot, they would have the receipt portion covered…taking one more step to ensure the integrity of their election.
I had a credit union client with some of the same ‘unintended results’. They setup laptops inside their brancehs to in order to offer online voting to their members who might not have a computer at home or who might not know how to use a computer. My favorite quote after the election was from an elderly voter who told the teller that voting online was so easy that she tought she just might go out and buy a computer!
Makes one wonder why elections need to be so complicated? No one asks me for my photo ID at the voting booth and I never get a receipt. Cheers to Cobourg!
Often times, we will find that when push comes to shove, if you tell people that they can ONLY vote online, and not give them the paper option, they will find a way to vote online. It is when you are on the fence and tell them the option is there, that they will often default to what they already know.