Online elections voted down in St. Martin

Friday 23 December 2016

11 of Jersey's 12 parishes are voting 'yes' to get elections online - but it appears that Parish officials in St Martin are worried because they believe it could encourage "coercion" and "bribery."

The parish's strong concerns are highlighted in a recently commissioned States’ report on bringing in online voting.

In March the States approved an amended proposal from Deputy Geoff Southern to research and trial electronic voting systems. That report’s now been released.

In it, the authors say, "...all but one Parish (11/12) has a preference for online voting with only St Martin having an issue with the concept. [parish secretary]… feels strongly that a senior family member might use this opportunity to force family members to vote in a certain way."

One of the report’s authors goes on to say: "I did suggest that having a system that allows vote changes would alleviate this [but] it didn’t seem to convince him." In some jurisdictions it’s possible for electors to ‘change’ their vote if they feel they’ve been pressurised to vote against their wishes.

Again, according to the report, the other parishes are more supportive.

"The remaining 11 parishes all felt online voting would increase voter engagement, especially amongst the younger generation. Three parishes felt it would be beneficial to have paper ballots available for some parishioners who have an aversion to any technology. They thought this could be managed on the day, however they are open to supporting a full technical solution if simple and bomb proof.

Other benefits mentioned include better and faster voter statistics, improved pre-polling, improved service, especially to those parishioners wanting to vote at their Parish Hall and importantly quicker and more accurate vote counts."

This section of the report concludes with: "in summary the parish secretaries are very supportive of both automatic and mandatory electoral registration, and very much in favour of online voting subject of course to robust processes and technology that allows them to maintain and improve the services they provide."

The Privileges and Procedures Committee are also backing the move to electronic registration and voting - but its report to States members signs off by saying: "it is not possible to guarantee that the new system will be working appropriately in time for the 2018 elections. Accordingly, there will be a period when the current and new systems will operate in tandem. Therefore, the paper forms, which will inform the electoral registers for the 2018 elections, will be distributed as normal during 2017."