Municipalities in Ontario have broad discretion to manage their local elections. This legislative discretion has led to the widespread adoption of remote, internet-based voting, where municipalities are responsible for making cybersecurity decisions in a largely unregulated environment without standards, certification, testing, or support from higher levels of government. However, online voting remains controversial for many complex, technical, and democratic reasons.

In this talk, we will discuss recent Ontario municipal elections where hundreds of cities, representing millions of voters, not only offered online voting but also, in many cases, eliminated paper ballots entirely. Quebec is also currently considering allowing municipal online voting. Based on our research findings about what the technology does and doesn’t do, we will examine the considerable cyber and democratic risks of this approach, and conclude with a discussion of what Ontario and Quebec can do to protect their municipal elections.

Aleksander Essex is an associate professor of software engineering at Western University. His research specializes in cybersecurity and cryptography, with a focus on evidence-based election technology and the unique cyber risks associated with online voting. He initiated and helped draft the first national voluntary standard for online voting in Canada, published in 2024. He has advised numerous election agencies in Canada and abroad on the technical and democratic implications of adopting election technology.