Electoral Reform committee  I would agree with what you said, definitely, but on the other hand I see the issue of wasted votes and frustrated electors. However, you're certainly correct. I would agree.

Electoral Reform committee  I would agree with what Leslie said in that this is a change that you want to get right. You don't just want to do it to do it; you want to get it right. You want to take your time, and if it goes a little bit past the election, as long as you get it right, won't that be better f

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you for the question. Definitely the primary rationale that online voters give for its use is convenience. That is the primary rationale. The second main rationale, however, is accessibility. Yes, young people are not the most likely to necessarily use online voting. The

Electoral Reform committee  I think it's part and parcel of the same thing, so I think this could be one effort that would be part of that initiative, let's say. Certainly offering Internet voting could be one part, whether it's remote or not. There are different kinds of Internet voting. I spoke about remo

Electoral Reform committee  Yes, I agree. First of all, narrowing down the choices is important because you don't want to overwhelm Canadians by giving them.... I think even five choices is quite a few, so I would definitely say narrow it down. Education and outreach need to be key elements of the referendu

Electoral Reform committee  I'm not an expert in terms of referendum turnout, but my understanding is that turnout for referendums is typically a bit lower than for elections, particularly at the municipal level. Switzerland would be an exemplary case where that's not true, but I think turnout in referendum

Electoral Reform committee  I think it depends on the issue. With the Quebec referendum, for example, people often point to that and say that people will come and turn out if it's an important issue. We saw electoral turnout declining federally and provincially during that time, but everyone came out for th

Electoral Reform committee  I think it might be something that some people aren't aware of. I'm biased because I love politics, so I was aware of that. I definitely think that increasing the number of advance polling days is a step forward in terms of accessibility, and so would instituting voting centres b

Electoral Reform committee  I think it would help people who aren't voting for everyday life reasons, such as being really busy with three kids or something like that, and they just couldn't make it to the poll. For people who don't vote because of lack of interest or because they don't like the candidates

Electoral Reform committee  There was the issue in Estonia. In Switzerland previously, Internet voting was deployed in three cantons: Geneva, Zurich, and Neuchâtel. The Zurich system has been cancelled for now because of a security audit. Nothing went wrong with the system, but they were doing a security au

Electoral Reform committee  I like the idea of locking everyone in a room and coming to a consensus. You mentioned a two-thirds vote. Certainly that would improve the legitimacy, but ultimately I do agree with the comments that Professor Macfarlane has made that there is something special about electoral

Electoral Reform committee  Thank you for the question. This certainly is a really important issue. Some countries have gone around it. In Estonia, for example, they allow you to vote online as many times as you would like up until election day, with your final vote counting, so if you're at home with your

Electoral Reform committee  With respect to highly partisan people maybe helping in a nursing home, for example, it's a huge concern. Some jurisdictions have gotten around that by training DROs to go around with an iPad and administer the online voting. Presumably those people are taking an oath and they're

Electoral Reform committee  Absolutely.

Electoral Reform committee  Yes, I think there are definite benefits to a more proportional system. When I spoke with young people and did some focus groups, one of the major concerns that they mentioned, whether they really meant it or whether they were just saying it, is that they felt that their vote did