Abdeali Saherwala | Staff Writer
Featured image: A petition to implement online voting has received over 1,000 signatures. | Basma Elbahnasawy
Evolve YU is a non-partisan grassroots movement led by Campus Conservatives York University, NDP York University, and York Young Liberals at York, who believe that online voting should be added to the York Federation of Students’ (YFS) elections.
Evolve YU has created a petition for the YFS to implement an online voting system for their elections, which has been endorsed by these three student groups, and received over 1,000 signatures.
Evolve YU’s rationale for an online voting system is that it would increase participation by the student body.
“For a commuter school like York, online voting will ensure that student voices are heard. Students should be able to vote from wherever they are, instead of being forced to go out of their way to a voting booth. Online voting has already increased voter turnout at other schools, and we should be following their lead.
“Only 10 per cent of students vote now, and we have to do better. Hopefully, the YFS will recognize what students want, and do the right thing,” says Evolve YU.
When asked about the possiblity of implementing online voting at the recent electoral debates, YFS President Rawan Habib disapproved of online voting, citing various concerns. One of those concerns on why YFS is not in support of this idea is the potential hacking of the electoral system. A famous case of this was in 2012, when Western’s University Students’ Council voting website was hacked.
Evolve YU says: “In regards to hacking, it is actually much easier to manipulate paper ballots than it is to hack a secure and encrypted online system.”
Evolve YU demands to switch the voting system from paper ballots to online voting, because for them, “online voting is much more transparent,” and they believe it “will provide more opportunity for students to vote both on and off campus, making YFS elections accessible and equitable for all undergraduate students.”
The organization says online voting “eliminates massive amounts of paper and decreases fossil fuels used for undergraduate students to travel to campus just to cast their vote by paper ballot.”
Evolve YU is demanding the creation of a democratic process that is accessible to all students, and online voting—as they see it—is a method in which that promise can be best delivered.
