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Thursday, February 7, 2013

Electronic Voting Quashed

Our consistent apathy and the aloofness with which we apply ourselves to current political arenas must sicken those who can only watch from afar in their repressive homes dabbing the falling tears from their cheeks as they cry for our freedoms. We have become so lazy, in fact, in exercising our duty to actively participate in elections that we have entertained online and electronic voting.

It is an expensive undertaking to conduct a political election, and low voter turnout continues to frustrate officials and candidates alike. Entire ridings can be won with small percentages of eligible voters who brave the inconveniences and overcome the excuses generated in their minds as barriers to making their way to the polling stations.

It is therefore no surprise that proposals flood jurisdictions to include electronic and online voting as a convenient effort to increase voting, particularly among younger generations that feel excluded and ignored by all levels of government. And while communicating and engaging these absent voters on their terms is admirable on the surface, we cannot discount the potential for significant fraud and tampering of results that has already proven to have adverse and disastrous consequences for countries and the world. One only has to point to the ‘voting irregularities’ that placed Florida election results under the microscope that propelled Bush Jr. into a four year term of war mongering, culminating in a collapsed world economy, questionable violations of personal liberties and freedoms, and equally suspect black operations.

No election should ever be conducted electronically. Period. The absence of a paper trail and auditing opportunity is enough reason to protect elections as one of those things in life that cannot be saved by technological advancement. The potential for election tampering is just mammoth.

Bravo to the City of Edmonton municipal council for soundly defeating administration’s attempt to introduce internet voting for its upcoming 2013 election. Councillors are correct in being extremely wary of welcoming any form of electronic voting for the reasons they publicly disclosed, and for reasons they undoubtedly quietly considered. Having a major Canadian city dispense with the notion of incorporating internet voting should set a benchmark for other jurisdictions worldwide to mirror their opposition to any such madness.

The cost of conducting an election is something we must absorb as a price we pay for those rapidly eroding liberties we pride ourselves on having. If voter turnout is not at the levels some would like, then it can be inferred that the general population is just tickety-boo with how things are running and that it is probably as good as it would be regardless of who is steering the ship.