Online voting eyed for local elections

Associate Minister of Local Government Louise Upston

The Rotorua Lakes Council is keen to trial online voting at next year's local body elections in an effort to get more people involved in the process.

But, no matter how keen the council is, it will be up to the Government to decide if it will be included in an online voting trial of local councils around the country.

On Monday, Associate Minister of Local Government Louise Upston announced the Government had released its requirements for councils wanting to take part in the trial.

"Local authorities must show they can meet these requirements before the Government can give the go-ahead to trial online voting," she said.

"Our main priority is to ensure the online voting trial process is secure and fair to maintain public confidence in the integrity of local elections. The requirements cover a range of factors including the security, reliability and accessibility of technology solutions used."

She said councils needed to tell the Government by the end of this year if they were interested in taking part and would have to fund their own trials.

The council's strategy and partnerships group manager, Jean-Paul Gaston, said it was interested in online voting and any initiative that could improve voter turnout in local government elections.

"Our view is that local democracy is of such critical importance to our communities that we need to do everything we can to encourage more residents to have a say in who represents them on the council," Mr Gaston said. "Sadly, in our last three elections less than half of the district's registered electors cast votes.

"Central government's requirements for participating in an online voting trial in 2016 have only just been made available to us this week. We now have to study those requirements and assess whether we would be able to meet the criteria.

"We would also need to understand the cost implications as the online voting trial would take place in addition to the traditional postal vote.

"Once we've made those assessments, staff will be putting a report before the council to decide whether or not to pursue participation in an online voting trial for the 2016 local government elections."

Mr Gaston said even if the council was keen, it was still up to the Government regarding which councils would be selected to take part in the trial.