Published on the 21/04/2016 | Written by Clare Coulson

Council elections to remain postal, but the real missed opportunity was the flag referendum (in more ways than one), says expert…

When the Government flip-flopped on its promise of an online voting trial in the 2016 local body elections this week, here at iStart we couldn’t help but think it had already missed out on a prime opportunity to test the water: the recent flag referendum.

When we put this to David Farrar, political commentator and a member of the Online Voting Working Party established to consider the feasibility of online voting. His answer: “Absolutely. I submitted to the select committee on this. It would have been a very good opportunity for e-voting. It’s not like it was voting for a government.”

He went on to suggest that, with the flag referendum being such a visual affair, it was an ideal opportunity to test the full range of opportunities presented through online voting. The flag options could have been displayed in full high resolution glory flying, albeit digitally, on local buildings and landmarks derived from user’s location.

Farrar believes e-voting will attract a younger demographic to vote (“I think younger people don’t have a relationship with the post office!” he said) and this could have swayed the result of the referendum. To be clear, he didn’t say it would have changed the outcome, but the split of votes may have shifted as more youth cast votes. He also said that no one is suggesting we use online voting for parliamentary elections anytime soon as their process is very secure already. Local body elections conducted through vulnerable postal votes, however, are a different matter entirely.  Security, of course, being the other argument against online voting as no one will ever be brave or stupid enough to say that technical risks can ever be totally eliminated.

But it all appears to be a far distant future in light of Associate Local Government Minister Louise Upston’s announcement this week that the online voting trial proposed for this year’s local body elections will not proceed. Apparently more work is required to ensure a trial meets public and government expectations. “Given real concerns about security and vote integrity, it is too early for a trial,” she said.

She concluded: “The Government is open to looking at proposals for future trials of online voting in local elections but any plans for trials should be developed as part of a programme of gradual steps.”

That’s Government speak for ‘it ain’t happening any time soon’. Is it the last nail in the coffin for any hope of New Zealand blazing a trail with online voting, iStart asked Farrar? “It’s not particularly encouraging to the local bodies and vendors that have put a lot of effort in to it,” he conceded. What the Government needs to do now, is to go back to local government bodies and vendors with a very specific list of what needs to be done, and there needs to be a timeframe. “I believe we should make it easier for people to vote and we don’t want to get to the elections in 2019 and have nothing,” he said.

There seems little doubt that moving online will make voting easier for many, if not most, and easier voting translates to a higher voter turn-out. Voters will also be better informed, or at least able to easily seek more information. Certainly in local body elections, the candidates are restricted to 120 words to explain why they should be elected. An online system could provide links to each candidate’s website and profile so people have a better idea of who to vote for. But the Government is very risk averse, says Farrar. “They think ‘if something goes wrong we will get all the blame and if it goes well we won’t get any credit’.”

Local Government NZ’s vice president Brendan Duffy, probably in the name of preserving important relationships with Government, was more optimistic. While he said that the decision not to carry out a trail in the 2016 local body elections was “disappointing” he felt it was more important that all parties were comfortable with the level of risk before embarking on online voting. The Government is very keen to find ways to make it easier for people to exercise their democratic right to vote, he said, but it was obviously not as comfortable as it would like to be regarding the potential of security breaches.

“I have to say though, it is far wiser to draw breath now than to have a shambles across eight councils on October 8th,” he said.

Asked if he thought the Hon Ms Upton’s comments on future trials had an air of finality about them, suggesting that she would prefer to remain with paper ballots, he said we would have to ask her about that, but added that “it will be everybody’s expectation that we will have electronic voting at the next [local] election”.

He would not comment on whether the flag referendum would have been a good opportunity for an online voting trial.

To us it seems clear, however, that if we don’t do something about the mechanics of voting, participation in local body elections in particular will dwindle so much that we will have to return to having polling stations – but at what expense?