A new Elections Canada report suggests many election workers remain wary of replacing traditional paper ballots with technology, with more workers favouring hand counting than machine tabulation in future federal elections.Blacklock's Reporter says the findings come years after a Liberal proposal to explore smartphone voting sparked concerns over election integrity, voter verification and cybersecurity.According to Elections Canada's Survey Of Elections Officers For The 45th Federal General Election, 40% of election officers said they preferred counting paper ballots by hand, compared with 36% who favoured machine counting.Researchers described attitudes toward ballot counting as divided.“Ballot counting preferences were mixed between hand and machine counting,” the report stated.Election workers were similarly split on whether voter lists should remain paper-based or move to digital systems.Thirty-four per cent preferred traditional paper voter lists, while 39% favoured computerized lists. Roughly one in five respondents said they had no preference.Despite differing views on technology, most workers expressed confidence in the current system.Eighty-four per cent said the ballot-counting process worked well at their polling location during the last federal election. Among those who reported concerns, 16% cited inefficiencies or slow procedures.The survey was based on responses from 4,362 election workers and was conducted by Ottawa-based Quorus Consulting Group Inc. at a cost of $78,365..The findings arrive amid continuing debate over whether federal elections should incorporate more technology.Prior to the 2021 federal election, the Liberal Party recommended Elections Canada explore alternatives to in-person voting during a potential pandemic campaign, including the possibility of voting by telephone.At the time, opposition parties raised concerns about security and voter authentication.“This is pretty significant,” Bloc Québécois MP Alain Therrien said during committee discussions.“We don’t think in the short term we should open the door to this kind of exercise.”In a dissenting report, the Bloc warned that remote voting systems could increase the risk of fraud and identity verification problems.“Phone voting poses considerable challenges for properly verifying the identity of voters who vote this way,” the report stated.“It also opens the door to fraud, something important to consider especially in light of the theft of data and personal information over the internet in recent years.”Parliament's procedure and House affairs committee ultimately approved a Conservative motion preventing the Chief Electoral Officer from implementing internet voting, smartphone voting or digital ballot counting without explicit authorization from Parliament.“We have heard some of these things,” then-Conservative MP Karen Vecchio said during debate.“That is why we’re putting this in.”Public skepticism toward online voting appears to persist.An Elections Canada National Electors Study released in 2023 found a majority of Canadians opposed internet voting in federal elections.Fifty-two per cent said Canadians should not have the option to vote online, while only 20% strongly supported the idea.The same survey found 53% of respondents viewed internet voting as risky, compared with 25% who considered it safe. Another 22% said they were unsure.Researchers noted concerns about online voting security have increased in recent years, even as governments and election agencies continue examining ways to modernize the voting process.
