Abstract
Indigenous communities are increasingly adopting technology to create digital opportunities for members and enhance engagement and governance. One recent trend in the adoption of online services is the use of online voting. To date, more than 90 Indigenous communities in Canada and the United States have deployed online voting with many more considering implementation. This article draws upon interviews with local government officials and voter exit surveys as part of community-engaged research with Wasauksing First Nation in Ontario, Canada to explore the specific opportunities and challenges online voting presents for governance and engagement in Indigenous communities and implications for future adoption. Specifically, we examine a 2017 Land Code vote where online voting was introduced to achieve a participation threshold required to pass the framework. Our findings point to online voting as a key tool to modernize Indigenous governance and enhance participatory capacity by making voting more accessible for members. We argue that online voting is an engine that can advance self-determination and support communities seeking an iterative path to self-government.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The paper voter sample includes more women (64%) than men (34%), with 2% identifying as ‘other’. Paper voter respondents have a median age of 46 years, household income range of $20,000 to $29,000, median education level of “some technical community college”, and are likely to reside on reserve. The sample of online voters, by comparison, also contains more women (71%) than men (29%). This sample also reports a median age of 46, household income range between $80,000 and $99,000, median education of completed “technical, community college”, and are more likely to live off-reserve.
- 2.
While the N’s are small, they are very good based on the size of the community.
References
Abele, F., Prince, M.J.: Four pathways to Aboriginal self-government in Canada. Am. Rev. Can. Stud. 36(4), 568–595 (2006)
Alcantara, C., Davidson, A.: Negotiating aboriginal self-government agreements in canada: an analysis of the inuvialuit experience. Can. J. Polit. Sci. 48(03), 553–575 (2015)
Alfred, T., Corntassel, J.: Being Indigenous: resurgences against contemporary colonialism. Gov. Opposition 40(4), 597–614 (2005)
Asch, M.: On being here to stay: treaties and Aboriginal rights in Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto (2014)
Coulthard, G.S.: Red skin, white masks: rejecting the colonial politics of recognition (2014)
Dickson, G., Green, K.L.: Participatory action research: lessons learned with Aboriginal grandmothers. Health Care Women Int. 22, 471–482 (2001)
Ermine, W., Sinclair, R., Jeffery, B.: The Ethics of Research Involving Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (2004)
Gabel, C., Goodman, N.: Indigenous Experiences with Online Voting. Report (2019)
Gabel, C., Goodman, N., Bird, K., Budd, B.: Indigenous adoption of internet voting: a case study of Whitefish River First Nation. Int. Indigenous Policy J. 7(3), 3 (2016)
Gabel, C., Goodman, N., Bird, K., Budd, B.: The impact of digital technology on First Nations participation and governance. Can. J. Native Stud. 36, 107–127 (2016)
Gabel, C.: Towards Healthier Aboriginal Health Policies? Navigating the Labyrinth for Answers. Ph.D. Dissertation, McMaster University (2012)
Germann, M., Serdült, U.: Internet voting and turnout: evidence from Switzerland. Electoral. Stud. 47, 1–12 (2017)
Goodman, N., Pyman, H.: Understanding the effects of internet voting on elections: Results from the 2014 Ontario municipal elections. Technical Paper, Centre for e-Democracy (2016)
Goodman, N., Gabel, C., Budd, B.: Online voting in Indigenous Communities: lessons from Canada. In: Krimmer, R., et al. (eds.) E-Vote-ID 2018. LNCS, vol. 11143, pp. 67–83. Springer, Cham (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00419-4_5
Goodman, N., Stokes, L. C. Reducing the cost of voting: an evaluation of internet voting’s effect on turnout. Br. J. Pol. Sci. 1–13 (2018)
Imai, S.: The Structure of the Indian Act: Accountability in Government. Research Paper for the National Centre for First Nations Governance, Ottawa, ON (2007)
Ladner, K.L.: Understanding the impact of self-determination on communities in crisis. Int. J. Indigenous Health 5(2), 88–101 (2009)
Ladner, K.L.: Political genocide: Killing nations through legislation and slow-moving poison. In: Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America eds. Alexander Laban Hilton, Andrew Woolford and Jeff Benvenuto. Duke University Press, Durham NC (2014)
Lightfoot, S.: Global Indigenous Politics: A Subtle Revolution. Routledge, New York (2016)
Lockhart, E., Tenasco, A., Whiteduck, T., O’Donnell, S.: Information and communication technology for education in an Algonquin First Nation in Quebec. J. Community Inf. 10(2) (2013)
McMahon, R., LaHache, T., Whiteduck, T. Digital data management as Indigenous resurgence in Kahnawà:ke. Int. Indigenous Policy J. 6(3) (2015)
McMahon, R.: From digital divides to the first mile: indigenous peoples and the network society in Canada. Int. J. Commun. 8, 25 (2014)
McMahon, R., Gurstein, M., Beaton, B., O’Donnell, S., Whiteduck, T.: Making information technologies work at the end of the road. J. Inf. Policy 4, 250–269 (2014)
Minkler, M., Wallerstein, N.: Community Based Participatory Research for Health. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco (2003)
Moore, C., Castleden, H.E., Tirone, S., Martin, D.: Implementing the tri-council policy on ethical research involving indigenous peoples in Canada: so, how’s that going in Mi’kma’ki? Int. Indigenous Policy J. 8(2), 4 (2017)
O’Donnell, S., Beaton, B., McMahon, R., Hudson, H.E., Williams, D., Whiteduck, T.: Digital technology adoption in remote and Northern Indigenous Communities In Canada. Canadian Sociological Association Annual Conference. University Of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, June (2016)
Papillon, M., Bakvis, H., Skogstad, G.: Canadian Federalism: Performance, Effectiveness, and Legitimacy, pp. 284–301. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2012)
Sweet, M., Pearson, L., Dudgeon, P.: IndigenousX: a case study of community-led innovation in digital media. Media International Australia 149(1), 104–111 (2013)
Acknowledgement
All authors contributed equally to this research. Authorship is listed alphabetically. We extend our deep thanks to Wasauksing First Nation for taking part in this research. Research undertaken for this article was financially supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Chelsea Gabel’s Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Well-Being, Community-Engagement and Innovation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Budd, B., Gabel, C., Goodman, N. (2019). Online Voting in a First Nation in Canada: Implications for Participation and Governance. In: Krimmer, R., et al. Electronic Voting. E-Vote-ID 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11759. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30625-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30625-0_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-30624-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-30625-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)