If citizens don’t trust the electoral system, democracy will fail..It doesn’t matter if breaches in electoral integrity are real or imagined. Once the mistrust is entrenched, it festers and a growing number of people become unwilling to accept electoral outcomes. They could give up voting altogether, or at worst it could lead to riots as we saw on January 6th 2021 in the USA..In Canada, trust in the system is eroding fast due to the exposure of Chinese Communist Party efforts to interfere in elections at all levels of government..That the CCP would try to interfere in elections comes as no shock to anybody. Those efforts cause apprehension whether the attempts to influence elections succeed or not. People want to know that efforts to prevent electoral meddling are being made. .It’s the government’s efforts to downplay the impact of the electoral interference efforts which are shattering trust in the system. If the Trudeau government gets away with brushing this scandal under the rug, Canada’s democracy will be at serious risk..Officials keep parroting lines from reports saying the CCP interference didn’t change the outcome of the election as if this should comfort us. It appears the interference has directly compromised at least one Ontario MPP and as many as 11 federal MPs. New evidence indicates the CCP has been meddling in civic elections in Canada too. We are apparently just expected to shrug this off and let it go as it was only a little interference..Canada needs nothing less than a full, public inquiry into the election interference scandal if the virus of electoral mistrust is to be stopped. I understand the cynical when they say such an inquiry wouldn’t lead to consequences for the top offenders. They may be right. The exposure of the corruption in the system could force some changes though and people could at least find remedy at the ballot box..Again, if we don’t feel confident we can find remedy at the ballot box, we are not in a democracy..Canada’s current system of elections is a good one though it has been abused. Efforts to reform it to add efficiency are only eroding trust further which leads to reduced voter turnouts..We don’t need massive mail-in ballot initiatives. There was already a system in place where people who would be away at voting time could vote remotely. I used it when I was in the oilfield. Even if the mail-in ballots aren’t being abused, it leaves room for people to claim it has been and trust continues to fade..It isn’t hard to get out to vote. Polling stations are all over the place and advance polls are open for days. Volunteers from parties will literally drive you to the poll and back if you like and you don’t even have to vote for that party when you are there. If a person can’t trouble themselves to vote with that much convenience in hand, I really don’t care if they vote. We don’t need to hand them the right on a silver platter..Counting paper ballots by hand is a slow, resource intensive process. It has worked for over a century though and it is effective. Scrutineers from every party can be present to watch every step of the process from sealing the empty ballot boxes in the morning, to the opening and counting of ballots at the end of the day. It is terribly tough to rig such a system with independent oversight..Electronic voting machines or counting machines may make things faster but they can’t be trusted. The vote counts can’t be verified by scrutineers and let’s not pretend that computerized systems aren’t hacked constantly. I am not a Luddite but I do oppose adding technology to a process that doesn’t need it..Now, Elections Canada has approved a new form of electronic voting lists that may be entrusted to overseas storage. The reasoning appears sound. It would speed things up at the polls and allow people to vote in more locations..Unfortunately, it also would digitize a resource and centralize it for prospective abuse..Even if there is no abuse, people will suspect it. Some losing candidates and their supporters will surely claim the system caused the loss and they will foster rumours. Meanwhile trust continues to evaporate..Canada needs to expose and weed out the electoral interference that has already happened and has to stop pissing around with the current system of voting and vote counting. Otherwise, the foundation of our democracy will truly crumble. Without trusted elections, we have nothing.
If citizens don’t trust the electoral system, democracy will fail..It doesn’t matter if breaches in electoral integrity are real or imagined. Once the mistrust is entrenched, it festers and a growing number of people become unwilling to accept electoral outcomes. They could give up voting altogether, or at worst it could lead to riots as we saw on January 6th 2021 in the USA..In Canada, trust in the system is eroding fast due to the exposure of Chinese Communist Party efforts to interfere in elections at all levels of government..That the CCP would try to interfere in elections comes as no shock to anybody. Those efforts cause apprehension whether the attempts to influence elections succeed or not. People want to know that efforts to prevent electoral meddling are being made. .It’s the government’s efforts to downplay the impact of the electoral interference efforts which are shattering trust in the system. If the Trudeau government gets away with brushing this scandal under the rug, Canada’s democracy will be at serious risk..Officials keep parroting lines from reports saying the CCP interference didn’t change the outcome of the election as if this should comfort us. It appears the interference has directly compromised at least one Ontario MPP and as many as 11 federal MPs. New evidence indicates the CCP has been meddling in civic elections in Canada too. We are apparently just expected to shrug this off and let it go as it was only a little interference..Canada needs nothing less than a full, public inquiry into the election interference scandal if the virus of electoral mistrust is to be stopped. I understand the cynical when they say such an inquiry wouldn’t lead to consequences for the top offenders. They may be right. The exposure of the corruption in the system could force some changes though and people could at least find remedy at the ballot box..Again, if we don’t feel confident we can find remedy at the ballot box, we are not in a democracy..Canada’s current system of elections is a good one though it has been abused. Efforts to reform it to add efficiency are only eroding trust further which leads to reduced voter turnouts..We don’t need massive mail-in ballot initiatives. There was already a system in place where people who would be away at voting time could vote remotely. I used it when I was in the oilfield. Even if the mail-in ballots aren’t being abused, it leaves room for people to claim it has been and trust continues to fade..It isn’t hard to get out to vote. Polling stations are all over the place and advance polls are open for days. Volunteers from parties will literally drive you to the poll and back if you like and you don’t even have to vote for that party when you are there. If a person can’t trouble themselves to vote with that much convenience in hand, I really don’t care if they vote. We don’t need to hand them the right on a silver platter..Counting paper ballots by hand is a slow, resource intensive process. It has worked for over a century though and it is effective. Scrutineers from every party can be present to watch every step of the process from sealing the empty ballot boxes in the morning, to the opening and counting of ballots at the end of the day. It is terribly tough to rig such a system with independent oversight..Electronic voting machines or counting machines may make things faster but they can’t be trusted. The vote counts can’t be verified by scrutineers and let’s not pretend that computerized systems aren’t hacked constantly. I am not a Luddite but I do oppose adding technology to a process that doesn’t need it..Now, Elections Canada has approved a new form of electronic voting lists that may be entrusted to overseas storage. The reasoning appears sound. It would speed things up at the polls and allow people to vote in more locations..Unfortunately, it also would digitize a resource and centralize it for prospective abuse..Even if there is no abuse, people will suspect it. Some losing candidates and their supporters will surely claim the system caused the loss and they will foster rumours. Meanwhile trust continues to evaporate..Canada needs to expose and weed out the electoral interference that has already happened and has to stop pissing around with the current system of voting and vote counting. Otherwise, the foundation of our democracy will truly crumble. Without trusted elections, we have nothing.
