As of 9:30 a.m. this morning (Oct. 24), the last day residents can vote online before the Oct. 27 election, 22,507 people — or around 19.5 per cent of the city's 115,000 registered voters — voted online.
“It's definitely a success,” said city spokesperson Shelley Kasunich. “Just getting one person to vote online is a success in our minds, but that doesn't mean we want people to stop. We want people to still go out on Monday, people who haven't voted online, to still go out to the polls.”
Kasunich said the city's goal, before it had even launched Sudbury's first website for online voting in a municipal election, was to reach at least 25 per cent of the populace before Oct. 27 and increase voter turnout.
The city hired technology company Scytl to set up its online voting website – greatersudburyvotes.ca. Scytl specializes in online voting platforms and produces a suite of software products that cover just about any aspect of an election, from voter education to vote counting.
Greatersudburyvotes.ca uses the same transport layer security encryption protocol that other secure websites – for banking, online shopping, social media and email – use on a daily basis.
“People trust banking online,” Kasunich said. “This is the same thing if not even safer.”
Sudbury voters still have all day Friday to cast their vote online.