Local Govt e-voting
February 1st, 2013 at 12:00 pm by David FarrarKatie Chapman at Stuff reports:
Porirua City Council is pushing to be one of the first councils in the country to offer internet voting at this year’s election.
Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett addressed the Justice and Electoral select committee, which was hearing submissions on proposed changes to the local electoral act, this morning.
There, he called on the committee to look at including provisions in the amendment bill, allowing internet voting at local body elections.
E-voting would offer a better way for young people to get involved, he said.
The postal voting system was irrelevant to many young voters – most of whom paid little or no attention to local politics, he said.
”It’s fairly safe to say that most people these days have a greater relationship with the internet … than they do with their post box.
”Younger voters were always the hardest to convince to vote, so making it as easy as possible was an important part of the process.
”We can’t afford to disenfranchise more than one generation of people.
”While young people would still need to be convinced to take an interest, it would remove at least one barrier, he said.
I agree that postal voting is dying as an electoral method. For local government elections we need to at least trial an e-voting option.
As I understand it the current law is flexible enough to allow some local authorities to offer e-voting later this year. All that is needed is for Cabinet to pass some regulations to govern how it is done. This should be done in the first quarter of this year. It is ridiculousness that 16 years after the Internet became widely available in NZ, we are still dragging our heels on this issue.
Tags: e-voting
February 1st, 2013 at 12:13 pm
They should trial this in a couple of electorates at the next general election. The savings will be considerable. And the next census could also be done on line as well. People can simply register if that is their preference and then log in at the specified date. Or what ever. The cost savings and convenience could be considerable. The Internet rolls on changing our lives in all sorts of ways.
Vote:February 1st, 2013 at 12:19 pm
Key didn’t sound that enthusiastic the other day. Perhaps that’s because the Greens would out gun National on evoting!
Vote:February 1st, 2013 at 12:32 pm
Just don’t let Talent2 get anywhere near the software. And what Public Service Committee is going to specify the software requirements for this?
Vote:February 1st, 2013 at 12:54 pm
So, why do you want to encourage more of those people to vote?
Vote:February 1st, 2013 at 2:43 pm
If you want long term Socialist dominance this is the way to go. The conditioning of young minds by our Education zealots together with the number on handouts while waiting for the right opportunity will ensure the bigger the promises the bigger the victory.
Vote:February 1st, 2013 at 3:36 pm
Possibly so, but on the upside it would confuse the shit out of Winnie’s supporters
Vote:February 1st, 2013 at 5:13 pm
I think e-voting would be great!
Vote:One reason I like it (besides it being so easy) is that Liarbore supporters would be unlikely to use even this method (given that they’re bone-idle *and* less likely to own a PC).