The Canadian province of British Columbia may be inching closer to instituting Internet voting following a Nov. 21 recommendation by Elections B.C., the governmental organization responsible for conducting local elections.

In a report to the legislative assembly, Chief Electoral Officer Keith Archer says he recommends (legislators "may wish to consider," he says) parliamentary authorization of Internet voting pilots for provincial elections.

"I love the idea," B.C. Attorney General Shirley Bond told the Vancouver Sun, adding that she's empaneling experts to examine Internet voting.

Elections Canada, the federal electoral agency, also recommended in August the launch of Internet voting pilots in a special elections held sometime after 2013.

An Elections Canada-commissioned poll of youth voting behavior released Nov. 24 found that 24 percent of non-voters aged 18-34 in the last Canadian general election in May 2011 said that transportation to the voting location had some or a strong influence on their decision not to vote. However, statistical analysis conducted by the polling firm, R.A. Malatest & Associates, concludes that motivation rather than access barriers had the strongest influence on the electoral participation rate.

Internet voting has consistently faced opposition from cybersecurity experts, for example a Sept. 11, 2008 statement signed by 31 computer scientists called on governments to eschew even piloting Internet voting until "several serious, potentially insurmountable, technical challenges" around it had been resolved.

The city of Washington, D.C. closed down a 2010 pilot project to permit online ballot casting from overseas and military voters after researchers from the University of Michigan hacked into the system within 36 hours. As a demonstration of their ability to control the electoral server, they configured the vote confirmation screen to play the University of Michigan fight song (wait 15 seconds); district officials canceled rollout of the pilot.

For more:
- download Elections B.C. Nov. 21 report on recommendations for legislative change

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