Editorial — New technology of voting bound to have its hiccups

WEDNESDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — Aside from the issue of the shale gas industry and the unseating of an incumbent premier, the New Brunswick election was notable for a foul-up in tabulating the votes.

An apparent software problem put the counting of votes on hold for hours. It wasn’t the hardware, said the company contracted to run the system, it was a software glitch.

Whatever the reason, it doesn’t do much for confidence in the methodology used for the election, and must raise a doubt or two about other elections that have switched to new technology. Truth is, though, that electronic voting and automatic tabulations are becoming the norm as populations grow and the demand for quick results grows with them.

Part of the shift in how we vote is the worry that we must find new and easier ways for people to cast their ballots. Thus, we have mail-in voting, email voting and, soon, no doubt, voting with a tap of the smartphone. All of these things will be subject to glitches, just as the New Brunswick election suffered its hiccup.

But, we may as well get used to these occasional burps in the voting process because the use of new technology is going to become more and more pervasive.