Elections P.E.I. taking proposals for new online voting system

Voters in P.E.I.'s five largest municipalities are one step closer to being able to cast their ballots online in the next municipal election.

Elections PEI has put out a request for proposals to develop an online voting system that could be put into operation for November of 2022.

Last June, Summerside became the fifth and final municipality to green light an online voting option for the next municipal election, which will be in November 2022. The other municipalities looking to offer online voting are Charlottetown, Three Rivers, Cornwall and Stratford.

Elections P.E.I.'s chief electoral officer, Tim Garrity, said a lot of work needs to be done before now and then.

"Even though Elections P.E.I. did online voting and telephone voting as a portion of the [2016 electoral reform plebiscite], it's relatively new for us to add this to a municipal election," he said. "And again, this is basically five separate elections as well."

Security a top priority

Garrity said they'll be looking at proposals by Canadian companies, with a requirement that they keep voters' information inside the country. They also have to fulfil the same security standards met by Elections P.E.I.'s current systems.

"They really need to illustrate to us that it's a very robust and secure system that they would have," he said. "It needs to be able to work with the systems that we currently use here at Elections P.E.I. because we can't have two things that don't kind of communicate with each other very well, because we also still have to offer in-person voting."

The selection process will be followed by a mock election and audit.

The municipal councils will hold a final vote on the matter once the proponent comes back with a definitive quote.

Garrity expects the system would cost around $100,000, with the bill being split based on population among the five municipalities.

Elections P.E.I. will be taking proposals until Aug. 25.

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