Dear Editor:
RE: Centre Wellington to use telephone, online voting in 2026, Oct. 30.
This week, I read that Centre Wellington is offering telephone and online voting for municipal elections. I think this is a smart way to vote. It is more convenient for elderly people who are unable to move around easily, people who have a busy schedule, or residents who are out of town and unable to make it in time for voting.
Although voting electronically is more convenient for residents, it can sometimes have complications. Some problems may include a risk of fraud, technical glitches, lack of verifiability, confusion for elderly people who are voting, privacy risks, and audio quality when calling.
The population of this county has been accepting this form of voting since 2018 and online voting has been increasing. In 2022, 39.7% of the population showed up to vote in person, which has been one of the lowest turnouts, O’Kane said.
While this approach is improving, I suggest we need to be careful that it doesn’t go too far to risk synthetic data such as if we start submitting to robots or AI in the future. Overall this is a good method for voting because it helps convenience people who are very busy or physically unable.
Kenzie Hutten,
Chatsworth