In recent years there has been much talk about the promise and peril of digital democracy. From online voting – mainly at the municipal level, to the advent of social media, along with misinformation and data-driven disruptions in the UK’s Brexit and the 2016 US Presidential campaign, democracy has been in flux – and all before the arrival of COVID-19.
With Coronavirus, 2020 has brought more fluidity, particularly with respect to elections. This country has witnessed two provincial elections thus far, along with local elections in Nova Scotia, and the ongoing spectre of minority Parliament federally. In terms of how elections are being shaped by COVID, three areas stand out: the mechanics of voting, the dynamics of running for office, and the amplification of misinformation and extremism.
While it might have been expected that the pandemic would accelerate the adoption of online voting, it is instead traditional mail that is being asked to do the heavy lifting. With the US Postal Service at the centre of controversy (its’ credibility and capabilities questioned and some would say undermined by the President himself), mail-in ballots via Canada Post are expected to play an important and hopefully drama-free role in BC’s election (as was the case in New Brunswick where 17 per cent of voters dropped their ballot in a red box).
At the municipal level in Nova Scotia – where many towns had asked the Province to delay elections due to COVID, the usage of online voting is widening (over 150 localities deployed e-voting in Ontario in 2018). The question for the country as a whole is when electoral authorities at both federal and provincial levels will finally collaborate on a national infrastructure for online voting – an investment that will require a political impetus (some may recall the Liberal’s brief flirtation with the topic in 2015). In a world where many individuals are now shopping, learning, and working primarily online, the notion of a twenty-something expected to request and complete a mail-in ballot is rather archaic and unlikely to expand voter participation.
How candidates pursue public office and engage with voters is a second aspect of democracy worthy of consideration and one where the consequences of COVID are stark. With traditional lawn signs, door knocking, and community centre debates sidelined, the necessity of leveraging traditional – and more so, new media capacities are all-consuming. As Zac Moffatt, a former digital director for Mitt Romney, observes in Wired: ‘in the age of COVID, when you’re homebound, digital is going to be your force multiplier.”
Candidates face tension, however, between traditional media dynamics that centralize coverage on party leaders and incumbents (and often national politics) versus the potential for grassroots innovation. In the US, for example, local candidates have been sharing ideas for virtual engagement techniques via Airtable, an online collaborative platform. Yet as April Lindgren soberingly argues in Policy Options (‘Local news is being decimated during one of its most important moments’), the pandemic has further exposed the decline of traditional media at the community level.
Lastly, there is the amplification of misinformation and extremist views, reinforcing what Mark Kingwell long ago termed as the ‘shout doctrine’ of the Internet. Such dynamic is thus hardly new, but it does seem to be accelerating. As reported in the CBC, a “poll conducted last month for Montreal’s La Presse newspaper suggested 35 per cent of the population believe mainstream media outlets are spreading false information about COVID-19; 18 per cent believe the pandemic is a tool created by governments to control them”.
Such an environment is hardly conducive to civil exchange and voter outreach by those brave enough to seek public office. Here too, the CBC has reported on the rise of racist, misogynistic, and threatening content directed at candidates in New Brunswick’s recent election (‘N.B. election candidates face hateful comments on sexual identity, orientation, and gender’), with many Ministers and Chief Public Health Officers facing similar forms of abuse.
In sum, as COVID-19 underpins a strengthening digital imperative and transforms governance across all segments of society, our democratic institutions must also adapt. Preserving and deepening legitimacy, while limiting toxicity, will be a collective and profound challenge for politicians and citizens alike.
