Good morning. I’d like to begin by thanking the chair and members of the committee for the invitation and the opportunity to speak today and share my research and thoughts.
I've spent the past 11 years working in the area of electronic voting, both within Canada and internationally. This work has involved leading and coleading projects to examine the effects of remote online voting in the context of municipal elections, indigenous elections and a range of political party votes. Beyond social and political effects, I have been looking at the cybersecurity of digital voting from a policy perspective and exploring regulatory possibilities. Much of this work has involved collaboration with my colleague Dr. Essex.
Today I’d like to make four specific points: one, why online voting works for legislative voting; two, the types of remote electronic voting that could work in a legislative context and which one is best for Canada’s House of Commons at this time; three, how this work could make the legislature more flexible and accessible in the future; and four, some opportunities for thought leadership.
To begin, I’d like to provide the committee with some context about the core debate surrounding voting remotely over the Internet.
There are two primary sides of the debate, which usually focus on deployment in public elections. On the one hand, there are arguments for the benefits of online voting, such as enhanced accessibility, convenience and increased turnout. These benefits have been documented in municipalities and first nations in Canada. On the other hand, however, there are concerns about the cybersecurity and privacy of the vote. In some instances, online voting trials supporting public elections have been halted or cancelled due to security concerns or the detection of vulnerabilities. Two examples include a system in Switzerland and one in New South Wales, Australia.
This debate is relevant for the committee’s consideration because remote online voting can support Parliament to continue during the pandemic without sacrificing representation and the inclusion of members. At the same time, there are unique characteristics about legislative voting that make remote online voting possible and the cybersecurity more solvable than in public elections. As my colleague mentioned, the reasons for this are outlined in our brief to PROC: An MP’s vote is a matter of public record, and the federal government has the resources and capacity to support the cybersecurity infrastructure and implement necessary policy and procedures.
Based on our review, there are four main types of electronic voting that could enable remote voting for MPs. There's email voting, where members receive a ballot form electronically via email and submit their votes via email. This approach is being used in the EU Parliament. There's web-based voting, which is used in public elections and party votes in Canada. This involves ballots being accessed and cast via a website. An example of this is the U.K. House of Commons' MemberHub system. There's application-based voting, where members download an application to access and cast ballots. The Chamber of Deputies in Brazil has taken this approach. There's also video voting, where members vote via video by a show of hands or by voice. This is being used by local councils across Canada. Belgium, for example, is also using this for its committee votes.
All of these approaches have benefits and challenges, with email voting being the least secure and posing the greatest risk. In a legislative context, video voting presents probably the best or most usable solution for regular non-anonymous parliamentary votes. There are some benefits to this approach: It poses less risk, although there are still risks that need to be managed; it is the easiest to deploy and requires less technology; and it interfaces more closely with the parliamentary tradition of standing in the House.
Implementing video-based voting would require establishing some procedures. Here are some examples.
One is establishing whose responsibility it is to watch and record a vote. This could include staff members, MPs, party whip offices or perhaps a special segment of staff who support digital House matters. One consideration here is to think about putting a process in place where votes are double verified either by two individuals or across two different areas.
Another example would be mandating neutral backgrounds in video conferences to ensure that there are no images in the background that could send messages or carry a partisan tone that couldn’t be visually signalled in the legislature.
A third example would be allowing the Speaker to call for a revote in the case of technical errors. This was a procedural change introduced in the U.K., for example.
This does not mean video voting is without challenges or would work in all contexts. Anonymous votes, for example, would not replicate well on Zoom.
My third point has to do with making the legislature more flexible and accessible. Enabling a system for remote online voting could have future benefits in keeping legislative business moving in times of crisis, such as with COVID-19, climate change and future viruses, and in the context of accessibility for individual MPs.
The option of remote online voting could provide MPs with improved access to voting under special circumstances, such as in situations of maternity leave or parental leave following the birth of a child; in times when an MP's constituency is faced with a specific crisis, and they are torn between being in their community or advocating for their constituents' interests in Ottawa; or in cases of sickness where a member is not able to physically attend the legislature.
This committee considered proxy voting and electronic voting in 2016 as part of a study on how to make the legislature more family-friendly. However, no recommendations were made at that time. Other legislatures, like the U.K. House of Commons and Australia's House of Representatives allow for proxy voting for new parents, while Canada's House of Commons currently requires a member to be present in the chamber to have their vote recorded.
I understand that witnesses have been unanimous that the committee consider these changes for the pandemic only. However, thinking about how such a system could enhance the participation, representation and inclusion of members in certain circumstances is part of modernizing the legislature.
In closing, while the committee does not have to engage in a typical online voting debate, we see with regard to public elections, it does have to engage in its own debate about maintaining parliamentary tradition versus modernizing to become agile in uncertain times.
Finally, there are two opportunities for thought leadership. The committee's work in this area on policies and procedures for remote voting could not only benefit the House of Commons in the future but also other legislatures across Canada and abroad.
There is currently no regulation of remote online voting in Canada, so as we think about the adoption of voting technologies in the legislature, we might also reflect on how this conversation could later benefit electoral integrity in the context of public elections.
Thank you.