In an attempt to reverse declining rates of voter participation, governments around the world are turning to electronic voting to improve the efficiency of vote counts, and increase the accessibility and equity of the voting process for electors who may face additional barriers. The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified this trend.

Voting Online focuses on Canada, where the technology has been widely embraced by municipal governments with one of the highest rates of use in the world. In the age of cyber elections, Canada is the only country where governments offer fully remote electronic elections and where traditional paper voting is eliminated for entire electorates. Municipalities are the laboratories of electoral modernization when it comes to digital voting reform. We know conspicuously little about the effects of these changes, particularly the elimination of paper ballots.

Relying on surveys of voters, non-voters, and candidates in twenty Ontario cities, and a survey of administrators across the province of Ontario, Voting Online provides a holistic view of electronic elections unavailable anywhere else.

Nicole Goodman is associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Brock University.

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Helen A. Hayes is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University.

Helen A. Hayes' profile page

R. Michael McGregor is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University.

R. Michael McGregor's profile page

Scott Pruysers is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University.

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Zachary Spicer is an associate professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at York University.

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“Voting Online will become an important reference point for practitioners and academics alike. Particularly novel are its findings on the effect of online voting on satisfaction levels with (local) democracy, which are likely to spark debate.” Micha Germann, senior lecturer in Comparative Politics, University of Bath

“I very much enjoyed reading Voting Online. The authors do an excellent job of profiling the importance of their subject, showing how their research findings inform comparative politics.” Jean-François Daoust, Université de Sherbrooke, and co-author of The Motivation to Vote