Monday, September 12, 2016
Ottawa - Sept 15, 2016 - Electoral Reform consult with Minister Monsef
The Federal electoral reform community dialogue tour with the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister of Democratic Institutions will be doing its Ottawa / Gatineau / National Capital Region (NCR) event on Thursday September 15, 2016 at 7pm in Gatineau.
7pm-9pm
Crowne Plaza Gatineau
Salon des Nations
2 Montcalm Street
Gatineau, Quebec (sector Hull)
The discussion will include online voting, for which I have written an online voting backgrounder as the consultation itself does not provide any detailed information.
This Ministerial consultation is a separate process from the Special Committee on Electoral Reform (ERRE) consultations, and associated MP consultations, and possible citizen consultations, which are also taking place across the country at the same time.
In theory you're supposed to know that the committee hashtag is #ERRE, whereas the Ministerial consultations have the hashtag #EngagedInER and tweet from @CdnDemocracy, but in practice I'm guessing many people are not aware of the distinction. Plus which people are also using the hashtag #electoralreform.
In brief, the Ministerial consultations provide feedback to the Minister directly, while the Special Committee (ERRE) consultations feed into a report with recommendations that the Minister will consider (the Minister is of course free to decide not to accept certain committee recommendations).
7pm-9pm
Crowne Plaza Gatineau
Salon des Nations
2 Montcalm Street
Gatineau, Quebec (sector Hull)
The discussion will include online voting, for which I have written an online voting backgrounder as the consultation itself does not provide any detailed information.
This Ministerial consultation is a separate process from the Special Committee on Electoral Reform (ERRE) consultations, and associated MP consultations, and possible citizen consultations, which are also taking place across the country at the same time.
In theory you're supposed to know that the committee hashtag is #ERRE, whereas the Ministerial consultations have the hashtag #EngagedInER and tweet from @CdnDemocracy, but in practice I'm guessing many people are not aware of the distinction. Plus which people are also using the hashtag #electoralreform.
In brief, the Ministerial consultations provide feedback to the Minister directly, while the Special Committee (ERRE) consultations feed into a report with recommendations that the Minister will consider (the Minister is of course free to decide not to accept certain committee recommendations).
Labels: #CdnDemocracy, #EngagedInER, Electoral Reform, electoralreform, Gatineau, National Capital Region, NCR, ontario, Ottawa, Quebec
Monday, August 22, 2016
City of Kitchener 2012 Report on Internet Voting
The City of Kitchener did a report in 2012, titled FCS-12-191 Alternative Voting - Internet Voting (link will open a page viewer).
Because the City of Kitchener website provides a page viewer and a button to generate a PDF download, I've made a copy of the PDF, you can view and download it from Google Drive (click the down-pointing arrow in the upper right of that screen to download).
The report is particularly good is in the area of turnout. It concludes
Let me re-emphasize the last sentence in the above extract:
There is clear evidence that, regardless of geography internet voting does not attract younger voters.
I believe it is the Markham evidence that underlies the Canadian Internet Voting Project's (@ivotingproject) October 31, 2015 tweet stating "Young ontario voters (aged 18-24) more likely to use paper ballots than internet voting"
The staff report's Executive Summary recommended against adopting Internet voting and indeed Kitchener rejected Internet voting for 2014.
Executive Summary (extract)
Staff is of the opinion that [internet voting] should not be introduced in 2014 based on several factors outlined in greater detail in this report such as:
June 23, 2016 City of Mississauga report on Internet Voting
Because the City of Kitchener website provides a page viewer and a button to generate a PDF download, I've made a copy of the PDF, you can view and download it from Google Drive (click the down-pointing arrow in the upper right of that screen to download).
The report is particularly good is in the area of turnout. It concludes
there is no clear indication that [internet voting] increases voter turnout. There is data that shows internet voting does not increase voter turnout amongst younger voters.The conclusion is supported by tables in the Results and Outcomes section showing data from Markham, Peterborough, and Burlington, with a particularly detailed breakdown for Markham. See the image extracted from the document below:
Let me re-emphasize the last sentence in the above extract:
There is clear evidence that, regardless of geography internet voting does not attract younger voters.
I believe it is the Markham evidence that underlies the Canadian Internet Voting Project's (@ivotingproject) October 31, 2015 tweet stating "Young ontario voters (aged 18-24) more likely to use paper ballots than internet voting"
The Kitchener report however unfortunately comes to an incorrect conclusion about security "Security issues are a real threat but most studies conclude that the risk is small to medium." The reality is most studies conclude the risk is large.Young ontario voters (aged 18-24) more likely to use paper ballots than internet voting #election #onlinevoting— i-voting Project (@ivotingproject) October 31, 2015
The staff report's Executive Summary recommended against adopting Internet voting and indeed Kitchener rejected Internet voting for 2014.
Executive Summary (extract)
Staff is of the opinion that [internet voting] should not be introduced in 2014 based on several factors outlined in greater detail in this report such as:
- Security of an internet voting system;
- Data that suggests it does not increase voter turnout and in particular, younger voters;
- Does not meet all of the principles of a democratic voting process;
- Cost;
- The lack of overarching guidelines especially in the area of voting system security;
June 23, 2016 City of Mississauga report on Internet Voting
Labels: #CdnDemocracy, #ERRE, internet voting, Kitchener, online voting, ontario, report
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Ontario man allegedly uses multiple PIN codes to vote multiple times
“Wasn't he sweet?” said Yossarian. “Maybe they should give him three votes.” - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
CBC News - Ont. man cast more than one vote in election: OPP - March 8, 2011
So now we have the cost of an investigation, and doubt is cast on the election.
But remember, Internet voting is cheap and easy!
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the catastrophic risk municipalities expose themselves to with this technology.
Or, as they say: “The municipalities are perhaps naive about the amount of risk they’re assuming,” warned ... the PaperVoteCanada.ca blog (The Hill Times, February 1, 2010).
Ontario Provincial Police allege Peter Byvelds, 60, cast more than one vote in the Township of South Dundas' municipal election on Oct. 25. Police said he used the "pin" code of others to cast extra online votes, but did not disclose how many times he voted.
...
[Steven] Byvelds [cousin of Peter Byvelds] beat out four other candidates to become mayor, garnering 433 more votes than his nearest rival. He said it would be up to the township's chief returning officer to decide whether the charges call the election results into dispute.
South Dundas was one of several eastern Ontario municipalities to use a mix of internet and telephone voting during its election.
CBC News - Ont. man cast more than one vote in election: OPP - March 8, 2011
So now we have the cost of an investigation, and doubt is cast on the election.
But remember, Internet voting is cheap and easy!
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the catastrophic risk municipalities expose themselves to with this technology.
Or, as they say: “The municipalities are perhaps naive about the amount of risk they’re assuming,” warned ... the PaperVoteCanada.ca blog (The Hill Times, February 1, 2010).
Labels: internet voting, ontario
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Arnprior voting extended by 24 hours due to technical issues
Many, many stories about this yesterday and today. Not just Arnprior was affected, but it's the only one that took the extraordinary step of extending voting by 24 hours. Other municipalities extended voting by an hour.
This is a serious voting system failure. I think "glitch" is a bit of an understatement. First you hand your voting system over to a private company, and then it doesn't work? That's a surrender followed by a failure, not a glitch.
Incidentally "we are just too popular a service" is not an explanation, it's an excuse.
If your system doesn't work, that is a technology planning failure. If the obvious visible parts of the system don't work, how much should we trust the parts of the system that we can't see?
It's interesting to compare this result with the glowing pre-election news stories about how wonderful this would all be.
Kemptville EMC News - North Grenville begins electronic voting Oct. 18 - October 14, 2010
Apparently it is not voting-day Internet-traffic-proof, sadly.
Incidentally, there is no difference between high real traffic and a denial of service attack - presumably a botnet could just as easily have shut this site out.
There's so much to mock about the tone and unseriousness of this article - it totally misses the point about Internet voting. The issue is not whether it's easy to click a website button or the server room is hurricane-proof. The issue is whether YOUR VOTE IS SECURE, ANONYMOUS AND CORRECTLY COUNTED. None of which the system can guarantee.
More pre-election fluff:
Arnprior EMC News - Town staff provide overview of electronic voting process Voting in municipal election runs from Oct. 18-25 - October 14, 2010
So first you pay the private company to use their Internet voting system (which turns out I guess to be a shared voting system), and then you pay to promote it to your citizens?
Plus which, define secure. Secure as in, it uses SSL? Secure as in you have a consultant report that says it's secure? Or secure as in you paid for a penetration test by computer security experts and they failed to compromise the system AND they failed to compromise the desktop endpoints that users voted? And you also paid business continuity experts to ensure it held up under denial of service AND network connection failure AND under high load?
People standing in a room counting paper is a highly resilient, low points of failure system.
Computer desktops + the entire Internet + server room(s) + the entire power grid + many many other technology elements is a many points of failure system.
This is a serious voting system failure. I think "glitch" is a bit of an understatement. First you hand your voting system over to a private company, and then it doesn't work? That's a surrender followed by a failure, not a glitch.
Incidentally "we are just too popular a service" is not an explanation, it's an excuse.
If your system doesn't work, that is a technology planning failure. If the obvious visible parts of the system don't work, how much should we trust the parts of the system that we can't see?
- CTV Ottawa - Electronic voting creates problems across eastern Ont. - Updated: Tue Oct. 26 2010 5:14:43 PM
- CBC News - Technical glitch extends Arnprior vote 1 day - Last Updated: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 | 12:05 AM ET
- Arnprior EMC News - Intelivote explains voting problems in Arnprior - Oct 26, 2010
- Ottawa Citizen - Overloaded e-vote system means Arnprior voters get another day to cast ballots - October 26, 2010 - also republished in the Vancouver Sun
- 580 CFRA News - Election Extended in Arnprior - by Josh Pringle - October 26, 2010
It's interesting to compare this result with the glowing pre-election news stories about how wonderful this would all be.
Kemptville EMC News - North Grenville begins electronic voting Oct. 18 - October 14, 2010
According to director of corporate services/clerk Cahl Pominville, residents shouldn't be afraid of the process, noting that if "you can order from Sears over the phone, you can use electronic voting." ...
"It's not a big scary monster," he says of electronic voting, which will be handled by Intelivote Systems Inc. in eastern Canada. "It's been done by thousands and thousands of people in eastern Ontario in previous elections."
...
Pominville stressed that residents using the Internet voting method needn't be concerned about the security issues of the website they are being asked to visit.
"Residents will be connecting to a website in a very large, secure room in Nova Scotia," he explained. "It's a disaster-proof building that houses this kind of stuff."
Apparently it is not voting-day Internet-traffic-proof, sadly.
Incidentally, there is no difference between high real traffic and a denial of service attack - presumably a botnet could just as easily have shut this site out.
There's so much to mock about the tone and unseriousness of this article - it totally misses the point about Internet voting. The issue is not whether it's easy to click a website button or the server room is hurricane-proof. The issue is whether YOUR VOTE IS SECURE, ANONYMOUS AND CORRECTLY COUNTED. None of which the system can guarantee.
More pre-election fluff:
Arnprior EMC News - Town staff provide overview of electronic voting process Voting in municipal election runs from Oct. 18-25 - October 14, 2010
(Town clerk Jacquie Farrow-Lawrence), along with deputy-clerk Maureen Spratt, provided a demonstration of how the electronic voting system, provided by Intelivote System Inc., would work. She then explained the extensive publicity campaign that has gone into preparing the electorate for the new system.
...
"It is a secure process," Spratt explained as she proceeded to demonstrate voting by computer.
So first you pay the private company to use their Internet voting system (which turns out I guess to be a shared voting system), and then you pay to promote it to your citizens?
Plus which, define secure. Secure as in, it uses SSL? Secure as in you have a consultant report that says it's secure? Or secure as in you paid for a penetration test by computer security experts and they failed to compromise the system AND they failed to compromise the desktop endpoints that users voted? And you also paid business continuity experts to ensure it held up under denial of service AND network connection failure AND under high load?
People standing in a room counting paper is a highly resilient, low points of failure system.
Computer desktops + the entire Internet + server room(s) + the entire power grid + many many other technology elements is a many points of failure system.
Labels: fail, internet voting, ontario, telephone voting
