Creating a hub for e-Democracy - Engaging the Digital Citizen

NRU
Nov. 5, 2014
By Leah Wong

Digital technology is increasingly part of everyday life with people utilizing mobile apps for everything from online banking to transit schedules. As its impact grows governments are looking at how they can utilize digital technology to better engage with citizens.

Last month, an independent non-profit organization launched with the goal of creating a knowledge hub on how technology impacts policy and democracy. The Centre for e-Democracy was founded by digital strategy and innovation company Delvinia CEO Adam Froman with the support of the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs Innovation Policy Lab co-director David Wolfe.

“Things are moving so fast and people are adopting digital technology so much in their lives,” Froman told NRU. “I saw that governments are having the same challenges as the corporate world in facing the digital citizen.”

While the amount of research on the role of digital technologies in governance and democracy at an academic level is growing, it can be difficult for the average person to access the information and demand more open government.

The Centre for e-Democracy works to package the work being done by the academic community in a way that is more accessible to the general public. Froman says the centre will publish papers describing research that is underway in Canada in a way that is easy for the general public to consume.

“[We’re] building a research hub where all this knowledge can be centralized and made available to governments and citizens,” said Froman.

One of the centre’s first projects has to do with internet voting. Led by the centre’s research director Nicole Goodman, the project involves surveying voters, candidates and electoral administrators from municipalities that used internet voting in last week’s municipal elections.

Among the participating municipalities is the Town of Ajax, which last week used internet voting for the first time. Though the formal election review process is just beginning, initial reports show that the town is pleased with how its first digital election went.

“[At this point] all signs point to it being a resounding success with really high satisfaction levels from the community and very few hiccups on our end,” Ajax deputy clerk Nicole Wellsbury told NRU. “We’re really confident we went in the right direction this election.”

In the review process Wellsbury says town staff will look at what worked this election and how the town can improve the process in 2018. While many municipalities have used paper ballots in tandem with internet voting, Ajax went a step further and only used internet voting in the 2014 election. This required a substantial communication process as staff had to educate the public on the new voting system.

“One of the huge challenges we experienced on election day is that many people didn’t read the letter that came to their house [explaining the process],” said Wellsbury.

Early indications show internet voting had a positive effect on turnout in Ajax. Wellsbury said the increase was almost 5 per cent over the 2010 election, which is a major increase for the town.

One goal of the Internet Voting Project is to shed light on the effects internet voting has on elections.

“There is a lack of data on internet voting,” said Goodman.

Though Canada is a leader in remote internet voting at a local level, there isn’t a lot of information available that shows this.

Through the project Goodman and her team are looking at whether internet voting makes elections more accessible, if it improves turnout, if it makes counting easier and how it impacts the campaign process. All of the data will be collected by the end of November and a formal report published at the end of January.