civic duty done

It's so easy and modern here in the Town of Markham. After attending the local residents' association all-candidates meeting last evening, and finalizing my choices, voting took only a few moments while sitting in comfort at my desk. The procedure, with double passwords and a test to ensure the "voter" was a person and not another computer, was easy to understand and execute.

There are risks to on-line, telephone and mail balloting but the advantages far out-weigh the disadvantages. The potential for someone other than the registered voter to submit the ballot exists at the level of someone else resident at the same address. Beyond that, it is very low. In those cases where someone in the household might illegally impersonate others in the family to vote, that someone might also indirectly control how those votes are cast at a physical polling station (ordering a spouse, children how to vote) . The end result would be the same.

If on-line, mail and telephone polling gets more voters involved in the process the benefit is more than worth the small risks involved.