Report says Internet voting would not increase turnout

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VICTORIA (NEWS1130) – Elections BC recommends a go-slow approach when it comes to moving towards Internet voting in provincial and municipal elections.

Chief electoral officer Keith Archer says in a preliminary report that Internet voting should only be used on a limited basis because accuracy risks remain substantial.

Archer has announced a six-week consultation period that ends on Dec. 4, with a final report submitted to the legislature early next year.

He says it is not feasible to implement Internet voting in 2014 elections.

Omni TV’s political reporter Kim Emerson says for all intents and purposes this idea is dead in the water.

“They don’t believe that Internet voting, form everything they’ve looked into, would increase voter turnout among young people and a lot of the things that they thought would be advantages to Internet voting ballot box, they determined, really aren’t’.”

Emerson says they discovered they would have to hire more people to verify the accuracy of Internet voting. “They were concerned about the anonymity and whether people would be able to do it anonymously as they can now when they go into the ballot box.

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