Fingertip votes set to boost numbers

By CHRIS DANIELS

It is a tough job trying to get people to vote in local body elections. Turnout is low and those without high name recognition tend to do poorly.

In the past, voters had to walk down to the nearest ballot station to vote for everyone from the mayor to the ratcatcher.

People soon tired of that, so postal voting was allowed. Now, with turnout dropping further each year, online voting is being raised as a way to boost sagging voter response.

Warwick Bennett is chief executive of the Waikato District Council and, as president of the Society of Local Government Managers, leads the working party that re-wrote the legislation covering local body elections.

The current law, he says, allowed online voting, but the Local Government Minister needed to change regulations.

"We have made provision so that any form of voting that may come up in the future can be allowed," he said. "It may be over the telephone - just punching in the numbers of who you want to vote for."

Mr Bennett said his team looked at all the problems of online voting, which revolved around security and ways to keep a ballot secret. Ensuring the right person voted was also important.

"We came to the conclusion that there is no more risk with internet voting than any other form of voting - well, what currently exists with postal voting."

One way of ensuring security for online voting was to issue a card with a PIN number to all registered voters.

Mr Bennett said this system worked well in the United States, where turnout increased in a recent Californian ballot.

The chances of getting away with multiple voting over the internet were just as low as in postal voting, he said.

"There's absolutely no security risk at all with it, we believe."

Talk of a "digital divide" - where the wealthy connected people enjoyed the fruits of the IT revolution and the poor became increasingly disenfranchised - did not apply to online voting, Mr Bennett said.

In fact, he hoped that providing more innovative methods of voting would increase voter turnout and make it easier for those who traditionally did not take part to start having their voice heard.

"I say it will help the underprivileged. You can put terminals for online voting in the supermarket, all you would need is an electronic booth there - a simple A B C, follow the instructions on the screen. It can be at the supermarket, the TAB, wherever."

It would also save councils money. "We [would not] have to send out all that paper to everybody."

North Shore City mayoral contender Joel Cayford, a fan of using the internet to communicate political messages, does not share the same enthusiasm for online voting.

"I think that for the democratic process to work the best, it's better when people talk with each other, in groups, on the street corner, at the letterbox and at meetings," he said.

"The more you 'privatise' voting and make it between you and a screen [the more] you begin to cut into that whole community thing.

"Voting online is a bit too immediate. I think it could cheapen the process and certainly removes some of the richness that I think makes the democratic process more informed and gets people more involved."

Feature: Local body elections 2001

www.localgovt.co.nz