“An election cannot give a country a firm sense of direction if it has two or more national parties which merely have different names but are as alike in their principles and aims as two peas in the same pod”
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
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You’ve heard the slogan “Let Your Fingers Do the Walking?” Soon your finger is all you may need to register to vote in Canada. 
Already other countries are leveraging technology to help streamline voter registration, including fingerprint technology. Gahana’s general elections are taking place and biometrics like fingertip scanning will help verify the voter’s identity. Other countries in Africa, including Nigeria, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have already implemented similar voting procedures. These countries share Ghana’s frustration with disputes about election results, which come largely due to problems such as people voting multiple times.
Using fingerprint technology to verify identity would give elections iron clad security in that it would ensure that those who can vote are voting, and that they do so only once. But technology doesn’t resolve all the issues and in some cases presents new ones. For instance, some people fear these high-tech tools cause cancer, which was quickly refuted by Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC).
It’s those fears that prompted election officials to expand their social media presence. In an effort to inform voters on biometric voter registration and the registration process in general, election officials are posting messages on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr daily until the election ends on May 5.
Checkout the hashtags #iRegistered and #GhanaDecides to see how Ghana is informing its citizens and encouraging more people to register as voters. And if you want updates on online elections and software check out our twitter feed.
“When I have to choose between voting for the people or the special interests, I always stick with the special interests. They remember. The people forget.”
– Henry F. Ashurst
During a bout of inspiration where I churned out some ElectionBuddy blogs, I was browsing the internet to see if I could find any tidbits on voting.
Bells started ringing in my head when I came across an article about a debate on whether the Park Slope Food Co-op in New York should have a referendum on having a vote. Confused? Watch the video below which gives a great overview of the issue facing the Co-op members.
To me, the question Co-op members voted on was interesting but so was the process. They used paper ballots with a simple yes or no question. Would online voting software like ElectionBuddy help move the process along? Votes were counted on site, behind yellow caution tape — talk about pressure!
And in cases where people want to debate an issue would they be better to have an off-site election after the debate, giving people a chance to calm down? Otherwise this makes for a long evening for everyone, but especially so when you have babysitters at home and a job to go to in the morning.
In the end the democratic process worked (I guess) as members had their vote on whether to have a vote and the final tally was….Total votes: 1,662. Votes in favor of a referendum: 653. Votes against: 1,005. The nays had it. Click here to read more.
Online voting has really gathered steam lately and now it appears even the Academy Awards will move to an online system for nominating excellence in the film industry.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences advised its 6,000 or so voting members that an online system for Oscar voting is being used for the 85th Annual Academy Awards, held next year.
As far as we know, Election Buddy isn’t the choice, though it suits almost any voting or election model. And we have over 250,000 ballots under our belt so people are finding us a useful service for everything from condo board elections to voting on a high school’s student council.
In the past, the Academy Awards voting has been done on paper ballots and sent through the U.S. mail. A small team of PricewaterhouseCooopers accountants tackled the tabulating duty.
The move to online nominations is a bit of a surprise move as the Academy is so steeped in tradition and is famous for going to great lengths to keep the nominees and winners a secret and so far this has never occurred, even in the age of Twitter and Facebook. So this shows how much confidence now exists in online voting processes.
We’re sure the Academy did it’s due diligence in picking the company to develop its online system, but I bet Election Buddy stacks up fairly well with whoever they use. In fact, Academy members, I bet one of those little gold statues that I’m right!
“Never vote for the best candidate, vote for the one who will do the least harm.”
– Frank Dane
For 250,000 Albertans, the provincial election is going to be the first time they get to vote and the election is shaping up to be on the most exciting in decades.
Early polls have two political parties tied in terms of popularity, most of the parties have new leaders and a new party is in the race this time so this election is much more exciting than previous ones. And students can play a pivotal role in who the election’s winner will be.
The Students’ Unions at the University of Alberta, University of Lethbridge, and University of Calgary want you to pledge to vote, so check out www.getoutthevote.ca to see how to register as a voter and how you can rally fellow students to vote as well.
A study from Elections Canada reports that that the decline of voter turnout among youth nationally is a long-term trend that started in the 1970s (only 44% of youth in the 18-24 age bracket voted in the 2008 federal election).
This is your chance to reverse the trend!
With all the controversy around “robocalls” in Canada recently, the ElectionBuddy team thought we would examine types of election fraud.
And while there’s plenty of rhetoric to read, we’re just like a dog with a bone when it comes to digging up good stories about voting and elections. Sure enough, we found a story we think will start tongues — and tails — wagging.
A New Mexico man wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to commit voter fraud so he registered his dog, Buddy, to vote. Watch the video below for the full scoop:
The man, whose name wasn’t used because he was granted anonymity by the local news station that sniffed this story out, admitted to making up a birth date and social security number. He submitted the paperwork and in two weeks he had a voter registration card in his hand for Buddy.
No word on whether the New Mexico clerk’s office is pursuing charges, but they sure aren’t barking up the wrong tree if they did.
“When we talk about elections and voting often people think first of federal or provincial elections, but you have just as much say, if not more, in local issues” says Dave Meslin.
A self-described “rabble-rouser,” Meslin seeks to inspire the average citizen to pay attention to local issues and take part in the decision-making process. He is an outspoken critic of Canadian election practices and recently founded the Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto (RaBIT). Watch his TED Talk where he identifies barriers that keep us from taking an active role in shaping our communities, through the political process, even when we truly care:
We doubt Dave is needed out in Alberta where the sparks are flying between four different political parties in the provincial election.
Given that it’s spring and maybe time for some new clothes, I thought this was fun!
