Thursday, June 30, 2016
How to participate in #ERRE Special Committee on Electoral Reform
The committee will:
If you are interested in presenting or providing evidence about the risks associated with Internet voting, and believe I could be of assistance, please don't hesitate to contact me.
There are several options for participating in the committee.
Once they are translated, briefs will be distributed to the Committee members and posted on the Committee’s website.
UPDATE 2016-07-05: I recommend sending your submission by email. The web form limits input to 1000 characters (characters, not words) and you will not receive a confirmation code or email confirmation. ENDUPDATE
You will get at least ten minutes for opening remarks and (as you can see in the next section) you may get asked questions that were submitted over Twitter.
"Time for Opening Remarks and Questioning of Witnesses —That witnesses be given a minimum of 10 minutes or more, at the discretion of the Chair to make their opening statements; and that during the questioning of witnesses all members of the Committee be allocated equal time to pose questions in the following order: Liberal Party, Conservative Party, New Democratic Party, Bloc Québécois, Green Party, Liberal Party, Conservative Party, Liberal Party, New Democratic Party, Conservative Party and Liberal Party."
The use of Twitter alone is also an odd choice; it's a much more niche social media service for the general Canadian public than Facebook.
Reminder of remit: identify and conduct a study of viable alternate voting systems to replace the first-past-the-post system, as well as to examine mandatory voting and online voting (see About - Mandate for details of principles that should apply).
Be aware that the vast majority of witnesses and discussion will be around various types of approaches for choosing representatives ("various voting systems") such as preferential voting and proportional representation. Only a small amount of the committee's attention is likely to be available for discussing online voting.
UPDATE 2016-07-30: The committee has asked a lot more questions about online voting than I expected (so far to witnesses who are entirely non-technical). ENDUPDATE
If you are interested in presenting or providing evidence about the risks associated with Internet voting, and believe I could be of assistance, please don't hesitate to contact me.
UPDATE 2016-07-06:
3. How do you feel about electronic voting? Why?
4. How do you feel about online voting? Why?
5. How do you feel about mandatory voting? Why?
Typically electronic voting means the use of voting machines of some type in the polling station. These can range from mark-sense ballot counting (scanners) to touchscreen machines. I will have to do a separate blog post to explain why electronic voting is not needed for and could be detrimental to Canadian federal elections. In any case, it's interesting to see this raised as a possibility as I don't see it in the language of the committee mandate. And I don't see how anyone who isn't an expert will know the distinction between electronic voting and online voting.
What the learning materials (Changing Canada's federal electoral system) say in their totality about the above topics at the moment:
I don't want to minimize the huge amount of work it was to prepare all of these "how to" materials, but without a substantial amount of background material for context, it will be challenging to have informed discussions about online voting.
Democratic Institutions press release - Minister Monsef Announces Launch of Federal Electoral Reform Dialogue Guide, Tools and Resources - July 6, 2016 - also available from GC Newsroom
ENDUPDATE
- identify and study viable alternatives to the current federal electoral system, including preferential ballots and proportional representation, as well as mandatory and online voting;
If you are interested in presenting or providing evidence about the risks associated with Internet voting, and believe I could be of assistance, please don't hesitate to contact me.
There are several options for participating in the committee.
Submit a brief
Canadians who choose to submit a brief to the Committee must meet the following criteria/conditions:- only one (1) brief can be submitted per person;
- the deadline for the submission of briefs is 11:59 p.m. (EST) on Friday, October 7, 2016;
- briefs must not exceed 3,000 words (including the summary page and footnotes);
- briefs that are longer than 1,500 words must be accompanied by a summary; and,
- it is recommended that within the brief the author present a list of recommendations and their relationship with the principles set out in the motion adopted by the House of Commons on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, outlining the mandate of the Committee.
Once they are translated, briefs will be distributed to the Committee members and posted on the Committee’s website.
Request to appear before the committee
- Requests to appear must be submitted to the Committee no later than October 7, 2016, at 11:59 p.m. (EDT)
- Please note that the Committee clerks will contact only those who are selected by the Committee members to appear.
UPDATE 2016-07-05: I recommend sending your submission by email. The web form limits input to 1000 characters (characters, not words) and you will not receive a confirmation code or email confirmation. ENDUPDATE
You will get at least ten minutes for opening remarks and (as you can see in the next section) you may get asked questions that were submitted over Twitter.
"Time for Opening Remarks and Questioning of Witnesses —That witnesses be given a minimum of 10 minutes or more, at the discretion of the Chair to make their opening statements; and that during the questioning of witnesses all members of the Committee be allocated equal time to pose questions in the following order: Liberal Party, Conservative Party, New Democratic Party, Bloc Québécois, Green Party, Liberal Party, Conservative Party, Liberal Party, New Democratic Party, Conservative Party and Liberal Party."
Tweet questions to the committee (during a meeting)
- The Committee members will monitor Twitter (#ERRE #Q) for comments and questions from Canadians
- Members may relay these questions to the witnesses in real time.
The use of Twitter alone is also an odd choice; it's a much more niche social media service for the general Canadian public than Facebook.
Submitting recommended witnesses
There does not appear to be a formal mechanism to suggest a witness, other than proposing yourself as a witness. You can always email the committee members directly with suggestions I suppose.
UPDATE 2016-08-05: Minister Monsef indicates that witness recommendations can be submitted directly to the committee by emailing ERRE@parl.gc.ca (also see other ERRE contact info). ENDUPDATE
Meetings and context
- July 6, 7, 25, 26, 27, 28
- August 22, 23, 29, 30, 31
- September 1
Reminder of remit: identify and conduct a study of viable alternate voting systems to replace the first-past-the-post system, as well as to examine mandatory voting and online voting (see About - Mandate for details of principles that should apply).
UPDATE 2016-07-30: The committee has asked a lot more questions about online voting than I expected (so far to witnesses who are entirely non-technical). ENDUPDATE
If you are interested in presenting or providing evidence about the risks associated with Internet voting, and believe I could be of assistance, please don't hesitate to contact me.
UPDATE 2016-07-06:
Conversations about electoral reform
Minister Monsef has announced additional resources in support of conversations about electoral reform. The short link is Canada.ca/Democracy but I will also highlight individual resources- list of events about electoral reform (including ability to submit your own event)
- guidance on how to Host a Canadian electoral reform dialogue in your community including Sample template for submitting the results of your Canadian federal electoral reform event to the Special Committee on Electoral Reform
- a variety of learning materials
3. How do you feel about electronic voting? Why?
4. How do you feel about online voting? Why?
5. How do you feel about mandatory voting? Why?
Typically electronic voting means the use of voting machines of some type in the polling station. These can range from mark-sense ballot counting (scanners) to touchscreen machines. I will have to do a separate blog post to explain why electronic voting is not needed for and could be detrimental to Canadian federal elections. In any case, it's interesting to see this raised as a possibility as I don't see it in the language of the committee mandate. And I don't see how anyone who isn't an expert will know the distinction between electronic voting and online voting.
What the learning materials (Changing Canada's federal electoral system) say in their totality about the above topics at the moment:
Implicit in the language above is the idea of experimenting with electronic voting technology at the polls as a precursor to online voting, which I also don't see in the language of the committee mandate.How you vote
Today, most of us vote in person by pencil and paper, either on election day itself or in the advance polls in the days beforehand. Many people also use special ballots, which are mailed in. Introducing new technologies at the polls could pave the way for online voting in the future.
Who votes
Voting could be made compulsory, like in Australia.
I don't want to minimize the huge amount of work it was to prepare all of these "how to" materials, but without a substantial amount of background material for context, it will be challenging to have informed discussions about online voting.
Democratic Institutions press release - Minister Monsef Announces Launch of Federal Electoral Reform Dialogue Guide, Tools and Resources - July 6, 2016 - also available from GC Newsroom
ENDUPDATE
Labels: #CdnDemocracy, #ERRE, Electoral Reform, Special Committee on Electoral Reform
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
#ERRE - Special Committee on Electoral Reform - membership
| Name | Role | Subcommittee(s) | Background | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Aldag | John.Aldag@parl.gc.ca | @jwaldag | Master or Business Administration (Royal Roads University) Bachelor of Business Administration (BC’s Open University) Diploma in Public Sector Management (University of Victoria) long career at Parks Canada from http://www.johnaldagmp.ca/about/#john-aldag |
Liberal | ||
| Alexandre Boulerice | Alexandre.Boulerice@parl.gc.ca | @alexboulerice | baccalauréat en sociologie à l'Université de Montréal des études en science politique à l'UQAM entame une scolarité de maîtrise à l'Université McGill http://www.boulerice.org/a_propos_d_alexandre |
NDP | ||
| Nathan Cullen | Vice-Chair (there are two vice-chairs) | Agenda and Procedure | nathan.cullen@parl.gc.ca | @nathancullen | graduate of the Comparative Development Studies Program at Trent University from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Cullen#Early_life |
NDP |
| Matt DeCourcey | Matt.DeCourcey@parl.gc.ca | @MattDeCourcey | Master of Public Relations from Mount Saint Vincent University Bachelor of Arts from St. Thomas University (STU) from http://mdecourcey.liberal.ca/biography/ |
Liberal | ||
| Gérard Deltell | Gerard.Deltell@parl.gc.ca | @gerarddeltell | studied social science at Cégep de Sainte-Foy, graduating in 1984 majored in history at Université Laval and graduated in 1989 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A9rard_Deltell#Background |
Conservative | ||
replaced on committee by Blake Richards |
left university to begin work for the Saskatchewan Liberal Party from http://www.jasonkenney.ca/meet_jason and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Kenney#Early_life_and_career |
Conservative | ||||
| Elizabeth May | Agenda and Procedure | Elizabeth.May@parl.gc.ca | @ElizabethMay | a graduate of Dalhousie Law School was admitted to the Bar in both Nova Scotia and Ontario from http://elizabethmaymp.ca/home/meet-elizabeth-widget/meet-elizabeth-may/ |
Green | |
| Scott Reid | Vice-Chair (there are two vice-chairs) | Agenda and Procedure | scott.reid@parl.gc.ca | @ScottReidCPC | Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Carleton University Master of Arts degree in Russian History from Carleton University from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Reid_(politician)#Personal_life |
Conservative |
| Blake Richards (replaced Jason Kenney) |
blake.richards@parl.gc.ca | @BlakeRichardsMP | Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Calgary from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake_Richards#Early_life_and_career |
Conservative | ||
| Sherry Romanado | Agenda and Procedure | Sherry.Romanado@parl.gc.ca | @SherryRomanado | MBA, Concordia University, 2011 Certificate in Public Relations Management, McGill, 2005 from https://www.mcgill.ca/continuingstudies/instructors/biographies/romanado-sherry and https://ca.linkedin.com/in/sherryromanado |
Liberal | |
| Ruby Sahota | Ruby.Sahota@parl.gc.ca | @MPRubySahota | combined Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Peace Studies from McMaster University J.D. with a concentration in Litigation from Thomas M. Cooley Law School from http://rsahota.liberal.ca/biography/ |
Liberal | ||
| Francis Scarpaleggia | Chair | Chair, Agenda and Procedure | francis.scarpaleggia@parl.gc.ca | @ScarpaleggiaLSL | undergraduate [degree] in economics from McGill University master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in New York MBA from Concordia University from http://francisscarpaleggia.parl.liberal.ca/biography/ |
Liberal |
| Luc Thériault | Agenda and Procedure | Luc.Theriault@parl.gc.ca | @LucTerjo1 | Titulaire d’un baccalauréat et d’une maîtrise de l’UQAM en philosophie http://www.blocquebecois.org/depute-luc-theriault/ |
Bloc Québécois |
Mark Holland, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Democratic Institutions is also present at the committee, but as an observer (does not have a vote).
None of the committee members has a technical background; this is not unusual for Canada's otherwise fairly diverse parliament.
I've made a Twitter list of all members https://twitter.com/papervote/lists/erre
The hashtag for the committee is #ERRE
UPDATE 2016-06-26: I've added membership in the Agenda and Procedure subcommittee, for which the shortcode appears to be SERR. ENDUPDATE
The committee home page is http://www.parl.gc.ca/Committees/en/ERRE (or short link http://parl.gc.ca/ERRE-e )
You can email the committee directly at ERRE@parl.gc.ca
The committee contact page lists the following additional staff membership
- Christine Lafrance, Committee Clerk
- Danielle Widmer, Committee Clerk
- Ariann Bouchard, Committee Assistant
- Dara Lithwick, Analyst, Library of Parliament
- Erin Virgint, Analyst, Library of Parliament
The Minister of Democratic Institutions is Maryam Monsef.
There is a web page for Democratic Institutions at http://www.democraticinstitutions.gc.ca/ but it doesn't (yet?) link to the committee. Shortlink is http://canada.ca/democracy
The Twitter for Democratic Institutions is @CdnDemocracy and the hashtag is mostly #CdnDemocracy
I've made a Twitter list of the Minister, Parl. Sec. and Twitter account for Democratic Institutions https://twitter.com/papervote/lists/democratic-institutions
It's not yet clear how best to interact with the committee (I'm not an expert in how committees work). For the time being, including for witness recommendations, I would say probably through contacting Minister Monsef, the committee members, and your local MP. Witness lists appear to be prepared by each party and submitted. There was talk at the first meeting of allowing questions to be submitted to committee meetings online.
Labels: #CdnDemocracy, #ERRE, Electoral Reform, Special Committee on Electoral Reform
