No online voting worries here, Markham says

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 30, 2014
By Brea Bartholet

Problems related to vote counting in the recent New Brunswick election are no reason for you to be thinking twice about voting online for the upcoming Markham municipal election, city hall is assuring residents.

A news report last week said Markham currently has a contract with Dominion Voting Systems to provide Internet, telephone and vote counting services.

That information, however, is incorrect, according to city staff.

Dominion has come under fire due to a glitch in the counting of ballots that impacted New Brunswick’s recent vote.

However, in a Sept. 24 media release from Markham city hall, residents were assured the city does not have a contract with the company to provide any election related services, nor has the city ever had one.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Dominion pointed out New Brunswick did not use online voting. Voters filled out paper ballots which were then scanned by a tabulator. It was this tabulation process that encountered a problem.

Markham does offer alternative voting methods, including Internet voting and vote tabulators throughout the election.

Election Systems and Software provides the voting tabulators for early voting between Oct. 17 and 23, as well as on Oct. 27.

Additionally, Markham has a contract with Scytl Canada Inc. to provide Internet voting during early voting.

To be chosen, Scytl engaged in a competitive bid process. It was required to comply with extensive legislative, accessibility, security and privacy requirements - ensuring the proper company was hired for the job.

Markham staff is confident Scytl has met - and in most cases exceeded - the requirements and will provide an online voting system that is fully compliant with the principles contained in the Municipal Elections Act.

“I want to assure Markham voters that we take great care to ensure the integrity of their ballot and take very seriously the security and accuracy of the voting system,” said city clerk and returning officer Kimberly Kitteringham.

“Markham has a solid track record in this regard and residents can have confidence that their vote will be counted accurately.”

Extensive testing of Markham’s processes and technology has been completed in preparation for the election, the city said. This process includes:

• mock elections with the machines and online early voting platform to ensure results are correctly tabulated
• anti-intrusion software deployed to detect any unauthorized access to the systems
• a third party security audit of the online voting platform; a risk assessment has been done as well as an academic literature review by York University
• a city invitation to all candidates to review the voting technology to increase their understanding of the systems being used

In the unlikely event there is an issue with any voting equipment, the city has various emergency plans in place, including an inventory of tested back-up tabulators for recounting.

Approximately 95 municipalities will be offering Internet voting in Ontario.

Markham’s online voting system is available to all eligible voters during the early voting period, provided they are on the voters’ list by Oct. 16.

Electors can check if they are on the list by visiting www.markhamvotes.ca.