Newmarket has once again asked voters to weigh in on voting methods after administering a survey at the polls this year.
The town was one of several municipalities to participate in the survey from Brock University aimed at better understanding online voting. It asked voters about public satisfaction with online voting, whether it improves participation, whether COVID-19 is a factor in online voting and the differences between who is voting online and via paper ballot.
The town said the survey will help “to better understand online voter experiences and opinions toward the technology to inform municipal policy and election planning.”
The results of the 2022 survey are not yet known, but the town indicated they would be presented to council at a future meeting. The data is being compiled by researcher Dr. Nicole Goodman across several municipalities.
In a similar survey after the 2018 election, most voters reported satisfaction with the use of online voting. In this year’s election, which had the lowest voter turnout in decades at 24.8 per cent, there was an option for paper ballots available via appointment, but more than 98 per cent of voters opted online voting.
Researchers studying online voting are now trying to understand how the pandemic may impact government decisions on the practice.
In a paper released earlier this month authored by Goodman and several other researchers, including York University’s Zachary Spicer, a survey of administrators found 42.7 per cent felt COVID-19 was more likely to drive online voting. It studied it compared to a 2018 technical incident that forced many municipalities to use contingencies, and found that the pandemic could have a greater perceived effect on the adoption of online voting than fear of technical issues.
“Given the persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing frequency with which technical incidents occur as elections technologies are more widely adopted, our results offer insights for scholars and policymakers," the paper said. "Notably that some exogenous shocks may not impact the delivery of elections as much as one might expect, and that despite certain shocks, elections tend to remain relatively stable."
In 2018, security was rated as one of the top concerns for Newmarket voters about online voting, at 30.89 per cent. But many (39.12 per cent) reported having no concerns about online voting.
