The Centre for e-Democracy

By: Nicole Goodman From October 18 to 21 I had the pleasure of attending the EVOTE-ID conference in Bregenz, Austria which focuses on election technologies. Historically a bi-annual meeting, the conference (formerly EVOTE) has now merged with the VOTE-ID meeting and will be held annually. What is great about this conference is that it is interdisciplinary and includes contributions from social scientists and computer scientists and engineers. The meeting also has a practical focus – featuring practitioners as speakers, and attendees, from around the world. Both the interdisciplinary and practical dimensions of this event make for a very rich meeting CONTINUE READING

By Nicole Goodman On August 23rd of this year I had the pleasure of providing invited testimony before the Special Committee on Electoral Reform. The committee is presently considering three voting reforms – adoption of a more proportional voting system, online voting and mandatory voting. Given my research focus on election technologies I discussed my findings on online voting and what we have learnt from jurisdictional experiences in Canada and abroad. I think it’s important to speak to online and mandatory voting in particular, since much of the electoral reform dialogue has centred on voting system change. In my comments CONTINUE READING

By Kalina Kamenova, PhD Online voting is a controversial, technological innovation that has generated extensive policy debates in Europe, North America and elsewhere. There is a clear bifurcation of opinions on the adoption and implementation of online voting. On the one hand, some social science research finds that online voting has the potential to make the voting process easier and more accessible for electors (especially under certain circumstances e.g., traveling, mobility issues, away at school, inclement weather, illness) and to positively impact voter engagement. On the other hand, computer security experts caution about security vulnerabilities, with some claiming that the CONTINUE READING

Director invited to present to the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reform (TORONTO, ON) August 23, 2016 – Today Nicole Goodman, PhD, Director of the Centre for e-Democracy (CeD) and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, was invited to present to the Special Committee on Electoral Reform (ERRE) in Ottawa. Goodman shared some of the findings from her 2014 Internet Voting Project with the Committee. And, to coincide with today’s presentation, the Centre—an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to initiating, translating and disseminating academic research and knowledge on the impact of digital technologies on politics and CONTINUE READING