Electronic voting in Canada

Federal elections and provincial elections use paper ballots, but electronic voting has been used since at least the 1990s at the municipal level. Committee reports and analysis from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia have all recommended against provincial Internet voting. A federal committee has recommended against national Internet voting.

Some municipalities in Ontario and Nova Scotia provide Internet voting.

There are no Canadian electronic voting standards.

There is no electronic or online voting in Canadian federal elections.

For national elections, there is a uniform set of standards for voting. This governing law is the Canada Elections Act.

The Act is c. 9, assented to (made law) 31 May 2000. It has been amended several times since 2000. In 2014, it was amended (2014, c. 12, s. 8.) to require the prior approval of a majority in both the Senate and House of Commons for electronic voting, rather than just Senate and House committees.

The relevant provision applying to electronic voting is:

PART 2 CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER AND STAFF

Alternative voting process

18.1 The Chief Electoral Officer may carry out studies on voting, including studies respecting alternative voting processes, and may devise and test an alternative voting process for future use in a general election or a by-election. Such a process may not be used for an official vote without the prior approval of the committees of the Senate and of the House of Commons that normally consider electoral matters or, in the case of an alternative electronic voting process, without the prior approval of the Senate and the House of Commons.

It was reported that 'Elections Canada hoped to test web voting by 2013, beginning with a byelection. "The general philosophy is to take the ballot box to the voter," says Mayrand, Canada's chief electoral officer.'

Elections Canada released a report requesting approval to conduct an "electronic voting test-run in a byelection by 2013".

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