This article was previously published on GuelphToday.
Guelph residents are set to see the return of online voting for the 2026 city election, though it will likely be limited to advance polling.
In a 10-3 vote on Tuesday, council’s committee of the whole agreed to provide for online voting, along with unanimous support for vote-by-mail and vote-from-home as accessible options in addition to traditional paper ballots.
Online voting was by far the most controversial method considered by the committee, with clerk’s department staff recommending against it and a couple delegates expressing concern about potential security threats and the possible manipulation of results.
On the flip side of that coin, online voting is the method of choice for the city’s accessibility advisory committee (AAC), which suggested that not offering it could lead to greater voter disenfranchisement and violate human rights requirements.
“There is not only the accessibility lens on this issue for me, but there is an ease,” said Mayor Cam Guthrie. “The risk that is there, I recognize, but there is a tolerance of risk.
“I’m disappointed that over several elections we went from having (online voting) to not and with that, I think this is an opportunity for us to correct, I believe, the mistakes that have been made in the past.”
Guthrie withdrew the word “mistakes” after it was pointed out that decisions against online voting for the 2018 and 2022 elections were made by democratically elected councils.
Online voting was allowed during advance polling days for the 2014 municipal election.
Lorelei Root, chair of the AAC, told the committee she’s been unable to independently vote in a city election since then.
“If after a decade of fighting, even I can’t access independent voting in my city, something’s very wrong,” Root said, noting she’s been a regular delegate when council decides on voting method options to provide.
“This has become a very serious human rights concern and (could bring) potential human rights complaints,” she added of not providing a variety of accessible voting options, including online. “We (AAC members) also hate that it falls so far out of line with our city’s claim to a commitment of equity and diversity and inclusion.”
Votes against online ballot-casting came from councillors Phil Allt, Linda Busuttil and Michele Richardson.
It was Allt who moved the staff recommendations to provide vote-by-mail and vote-from-home as the accessibility-minded options.
“This is certainly not a perfect system, but it does balance the issue of security with independence, and I think we owe it to the community to ensure that we do have a secure system and that we do have one that fosters as much independence through notions of equity in our capacity to deliver,” Allt said ahead of the vote.
A clause adding online voting was put forward by Coun. Erin Caton.
Like all committee of the whole decisions, approved motions are not final until they’ve been formally ratified during a regular council session, which is expected to take place on May 28.
City staff raised a number of concerns with online voting and repeatedly reminded the committee its recommendation was not to approve its use.
Though acknowledging there are no known instances of online voting systems being tampered with, there exists a possibility results could be manipulated by a “malicious actor.” However, the chief among the staff concerns raised centred around the ability, or lack thereof, to conduct recounts using other verifiable methods, as well as public trust in the end results.
Another potential problem is the reliance on vendors regarding technical issues such as available internet bandwidth, which can slow or even postpone the voting process.
Root, a digital accessibility specialist by profession, disputed concerns about the manipulation of results, suggesting every other method of voting carries that risk – such as stuffing ballot boxes or intentional spoiling of others’ ballots.
She said the risk rating city staff applied to online voting “seem to have been calculated from a place of privilege and without considering the lived experience of disabled individuals.”
The ACC passed a motion in December that called on council to approve the use of online voting, as well as an option known as remote accessible vote from home. A motion approved last month specifically urged council not endorse city staff’s recommendations alone.
City council approved the use of online voting for the 2014 election, which was applied to advance polling only, but nixed the idea ahead of the 2018 and 2022 contests, with privacy concerns cited as the main reason.
