Here is the comment I posted on The Hill Times article Electoral reform will not happen in this Parliament – December 12, 2016
COMMENT
“online voting would definitely entice more millennial and younger generation citizens to the polls”
With respect, no it wouldn’t. Evidence from all over the world shows that online voting doesn’t increase voter turnout. The people who vote online are the same people who would have voted offline. Youth turnout is low with online voting, because it is low with paper voting. In the PEI Plebiscite, with ten days of online voting, turnout for ages 18-24 was the lowest of any age range, at 25.47%.
Here are four reports that include the topic of online voting and turnout:
Gosse, R. (2012, December 10). FCS-12- 191 – Alternate Voting – Internet Voting. Retrieved from City of Kitchener – Laserfiche WebLink: https://lf.kitchener.ca/WebLinkExt/DocView.aspx?id=1235356&dbid=0
Archer, K., Beznosov, K., Crane, L.-A., King, V., & Morfitt, G. (2014, February 12). Recommendations Report to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Retrieved from British Columbia Independent Panel on Internet Voting: https://elections.bc.ca/docs/recommendations-report.pdf (UPDATED link 2019-09-13)
Goodman, N., & Stokes, L. C. (2016, October 6). Reducing the Cost of Voting: An Empirical Evaluation of Internet Voting’s Effect on Local Elections. Retrieved from Social Science Research Network (SSRN): https://ssrn.com/abstract=2849167
McLeod, G. B. (2016, November 9). Interim Report of the Chief Electoral Officer for the 2016 Plebiscite on Democratic Renewal. Retrieved from Elections Prince Edward Island: http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/elec_demrefpleb.pdf
For over a dozen references on this topic you can see https://papervotecanada2.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/online-voting-doesnt-increase-turnout/
ENDCOMMENT
Paper Vote Canada 2 