MPA Major Research Papers

Date of Award

7-1-2019

Degree Type

Major Research Paper

Degree Name

Master of Public Administration

Program

Political Science

Supervisor

Christopher Alcantara

Geographical Areas

Ontario

Abstract

Existing research that has been conducted on telephone and internet voting in Canada has focussed almost exclusively on large, urban municipalities. Yet in Ontario, local governments of all sizes have adopted these modes of voting. As a result, very little is known about the effects of telephone and internet voting in rural municipalities and this is problematic. This paper attempts to address this gap in the literature by examining telephone and internet voting in the context of rural municipalities in Ontario. It relies on a qualitative multi-case cross-sectional design to generate exploratory findings on the effects that the adoption of telephone and internet voting has on election administration in rural Ontario municipalities. The data are drawn from semi-structured interviews held with key election administration staff within two rural municipalities in Ontario and are compared using interpretive methods. Analysis of the data suggests that there are nine different themes present in the experiences of rural municipalities. Each of these themes is treated as a different effect of adopting telephone and internet voting, and overall the findings suggest that the adoption of telephone and internet voting has tended to be a positive experience for election administrators in rural municipalities in Ontario.

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