Online voting could be tested in Hamilton during Ward 4 trustee byelection

Hamilton city council has given staff the green light to plan for online voting for Ward 4's public school trustee, saying it could be seen as a test in advance of a possible citywide rollout for the 2026 municipal election.

However, the city clerk says whether that goes ahead depends on if all the planning required to do online voting can be put in place in time for the Jan. 6 election.

At Wednesday's council meeting, councillors voted on an amendment by Ward 4's Tammy Hwang to investigate the online voting option. It passed with the support of 11 of her colleagues.

"It's an opportunity to test out the bugs and get good data to evaluate the efficacy and rollout, and give us time to make changes in case we wanted to use it in the 2026 [municipal] election," said Hwang.

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board's (HWDSB) byelection to replace longtime trustee Ray Mulholland, who stepped down last month, is set for Jan. 6. Nominations opened earlier this week.

Before Hwang's amendment, councillors had been slated to vote on whether to use optical scanning tabulators in the byelection, which the city runs on behalf of the school board.

Hwang told CBC Hamilton she got the idea for the amendment from a city staff report, which recommended running the election without any major changes, but listed online voting as an alternative for consideration.

"This would allow for valuable data collection and provide staff with experience working with a vendor to facilitate an alternative method of voting," says the report prepared by city clerk Matthew Trennum. "The insights could inform council's decision on voting methods for the 2026 municipal election."

Giving residents more voting options 'crucial': clerk

Hwang said she was interested to find out whether online voting would be practical as a standard option. 

"It's an opportunity to test out an alternative voting method that allows for greater accessibility with a smaller test group of voters," she said, noting only Ward 4 residents whose school taxes are allocated to the English public system are eligible to vote.

Hwang also said Trennum played a role, as he launched online voting at his last job, when he was clerk for Thorold in Niagara Region. 

"I have used it in a previous municipality to great success," Trennum, who became Hamilton's clerk earlier this year, told councillors. "It is my opinion that it is crucial to provide residents with greater voting options."

Online voting would be conducted on independent servers by a third-party contractor, not "internal [information technology] resources," Trennum said.

He said there are two commonly used formats: a one-step method, where voters receive a letter containing a code that allows them to log in to vote, and a two-step process in which voters must register in advance to vote online. 

"That is the more common one we're seeing these days," he told council about the second format.

He later told CBC Hamilton that the format for the byelection may be determined by which company can work within the city's tight timelines in advance of Jan. 6. If it proceeds, online voting would be in addition to previous voting methods, not instead of them, Trennum noted.

"It [online voting] doesn't necessarily increase the voter turnout more than a couple percentage points, but that being said, it's an accessibility piece."

Costs for this election are paid by the school board, said Trennum. He said the board has been provided with quotes for what is available and was "comfortable proceeding… The additional costs should be minimal."

CBC Hamilton reached out to the HWDSB for comment, but did not hear back within our short deadline.

Some councillors don't support online voting

Not all councillors support online voting. Tom Jackson (Ward 6), Matt Francis (Ward 5) and Mike Spadafora (Ward 14) voted against the amendment.

Jackson cited online voting in other cities that he felt were too expensive or didn't pay off in drawing additional voter turnout.

"I'm not willing to take a chance on this," he said. "I like the traditional aspect of how we vote."

Francis's concerns are focused on the potential for a hack. The City of Hamilton is still recovering from a major cybersecurity attack in February.

"I do not have any interest in pursuing internet voting that could potentially compromise the democratic process," he said.