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Élections Québec / Our institution / Research, projects, studies, and surveys / Internet voting
Research, projects, studies, and surveys

Internet voting

Summary

Élections Québec has been interested in Internet voting for many years. This modality could facilitate access to voting by offering electors a new option.

Fundamental principles

There are five principles underlying a democratic vote. They are found in the spirit of Québec’s electoral laws and in all electoral procedures. They are international standards. These principles also apply to Internet voting.

  1. Accessibility
    An accessible election system is fair and open to all electors. The right to vote is exercised under consistent conditions, free from discrimination. All electors can exercise this right independently.
  2. Free exercise of the right to vote
    Electors can exercise the right to vote without influence or constraint, and with complete freedom and independence of mind, belief, opinion, and will.
  3. Secrecy of the vote
    Voters’ choices remain anonymous. Votes cannot be traced to an individual elector.
  4. Integrity of the process and results
    Election results properly reflect the will of the electorate. An individual elector can only cast the number of votes allowed by law. The elector’s identity is verified. His or her vote cannot be changed.
  5. Transparency of the process
    Electors and other election stakeholders can monitor the integrity of each step in the voting process. They can understand election proceedings and confirm that effective verification mechanisms are in place.

Pilot project

Élections Québec set up an Internet voting pilot project for the 2025 general municipal election. In October 2023, we issued a call for tenders to acquire an Internet voting solution. However, none of the three suppliers bidding were able to meet our needs. We therefore cancelled this call for tenders, as well as the pilot project.

This project was intended to enable voters in 21 Québec municipalities to test this voting method.

The security of Internet voting was at the heart of this project: we had planned numerous measures to ensure that the Internet voting solution used would be secure, accessible and reliable.

Project guidelines

The pilot project was based on four main guidelines.

  1. Centralised administration
    Each municipality is responsible for its own elections. However, in order to ensure the process operated smoothly and to coordinate efforts, Élections Québec was responsible for selecting the supplier and for implementing and administering the solution. The chosen digital solution had to meet a number of security and accessibility requirements.
  2. Additional option
    Electors who could have voted by Internet would also have had access to all other voting options. They could therefore have chosen to vote by Internet or in person.
  3. Six additional voting days
    Internet voting would have been offered over two three-day voting periods. During these periods, it would have been offered continuously, 24 hours a day. It would not have been available on advance polling days or on election day.
  4. Limited electorate
    Internet voting would have been available in certain districts or boroughs of 21 municipalities with populations of 20,000 or more. Around 300,000 voters would have had access to this voting method.

Study in the Québec context

For more information on Internet voting, see the study (PDF) we released on the topic in June 2020. It discusses voting trials conducted in Canada and elsewhere in the world. The document includes the results of the consultations we conducted in 2019, in which all Quebecers were invited to participate. A summary (PDF) of the study is also available.

Available documents

Documents related to the Internet voting pilot project

Documents related to the 2020 study

Documents related to the fall 2019 consultation

Documents submitted during the 2019 consultation

Most of these documents are in French.

The Charter of the French language and its regulations govern the consultation of English-language content.

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