Despite valid security concerns, Elections Canada forged ahead with a risky ‘pilot’ plan to introduce electronic voting lists — but it’s only the beginning of a much grander plan..And it’s safe to suspect the ultimate goal may be to do away with in-person paper ballots and ID — unfortunately, still the surest way of ensuring a fair and honest election..One extremely disturbing element of this shockingly irresponsible move puts Canada’s election information into the hands of unidentified foreigners..It doesn't really matter which foreigners. That presents a grave risk — and a potentially extreme assault — on the integrity of our elections. It must come to a full stop now. In the absence of indisputable proof it doesn’t open the floodgates for voter fraud or foreign interference, Canadians must reject this. And right now, we have absolutely no reason to be confident about any protection against voter fraud or election interference..Instead of diving in headlong, one would think the Canadian government would be on high alert. It's well known how often corruption and malfunctions involving digitalized systems interfered with elections in so many ways, in so many other places..There’s something sinisterly smelly, or at the very least, negligent, afoot..The fact Elections Canada is OK with sensitive information being stored on foreign servers, exact locations unknown, raises ominous red flags..Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault admitted as much during his presentation to a House Affairs committee last November..Equally concerning is the fact Perrault didn’t address what security measures would be implemented..Worse, where’s the outcry? Aside from a few feeble concerns raised by opposition members during that meeting, they’ve been impotent on this issue. Do they not get if an election is tampered with, it likely won’t work out in their favour?.This revelation about the electronic voting lists from Blacklock’s Reporter comes during a massive scandal swirling around Chinese interference in Canada’s elections and plummeting public faith in the Trudeau government’s integrity and transparency..“Elections Canada will pilot the use of an electronic list of electors to support voting at any table in the designated polling location should a by-election occur in 2023,” wrote Perrault in a 2023-2024 departmental plan..Currently, poll workers use a paper copy of the National Register of Electors..But this pilot use is just the beginning. “Our goal is to be in [a] position to deploy electronic lists more broadly in 2025,” wrote Perrault.“Throughout 2023-2024, the agency will work toward modernizing its tools, services, and technologies. Notably, Elections Canada will invest in migrating data and applications to the cloud in order to increase the agency’s performance, agility, and flexibility,” wrote Perrault..So vague. So ominous. What exactly does that mean? We need to know what the endgame is..Perrault justified moving to electronic voter lists on the grounds it would reduce wait times and address “challenges” of too few poll workers..Don’t buy that. How does it make more sense to hire unidentified foreigners and use digital software prone to error or tampering to handle sensitive election information on Canadians, than to launch a campaign to hire more poll workers?.Perrault said Elections Canada sent contract notices to software developers to work on this as far back as 2016..Who exactly are these software developers? Canadians have a right to know who government entrusted to find a “solution to support automation” of a “single national list of electors” allowing people to vote anywhere in Canada..Meanwhile, Perrault also delivered this gem: He said his office hasn’t investigated any election interference leads..“We are unaware of efforts by foreign actors to undermine the ability of electors to vote,” he told the committee..That was before the public learned about the Chinese interference scandal. CSIS had long been trying to get Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to act on this..It's incomprehensible the head of Elections Canada didn’t at least catch a whiff about this, much less investigate..That Perrault glossed over security concerns is extremely disturbing..In March 2022, the Government of Canada’s website listed several potential security dangers — noting it wasn’t an exhaustive list — from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security concerning electronic poll book, or voting list, systems..They include data integrity attacks, cryptographic attacks, wireless attacks, malware attacks, data breaches, and system vulnerabilities..So, Mr. Perrault, please, tell us what foreign entities the government is trusting with election information that has no business leaving Canada. Are any of them notorious for their hacking abilities?.Tell us why we should feel confident the changes being made and the changes to come won’t lead to our election being hacked..The digital electoral voting system has been adopted, then discarded in many countries — including Ireland, Paraguay and Germany — and in some US states because it is prone to serious security breaches..Software miscounts or doesn’t count at all..Paper ballots don’t get discarded because of dust or wrong folds..Paper ballots can’t be hacked..In numerous US elections at all levels over several years, digitalization led to tens of thousands of votes not entered or flipped to the wrong candidate..Of course, the most high-profile was the 2020 election former president Donald Trump has been mocked and attacked because he claimed it was stolen..Every day more hard evidence surfaces to support widespread claims the election was tampered with, and the machines flipped votes..Is this the road Canada wants to go down?.Did anyone ask you the Canadian voter if you are OK with switching to electronic methods for casting or counting ballots?.Of course not. Not in Trudeau’s Canada..Somebody, anybody, man up and stop this..Enough of these Liberal games that are interfering with democracy.
