Apart from the fact that Delvinia is helping to promote the election and the option to vote online in the Markham municipal election, I am actively involved in helping to spread the word amongst the candidates. Next to the media, the candidates are one of the best channels to spread the word to electors about their options.
This is the first of the three elections that we have worked on with Markham that we have introduced a social media component to create awareness about the election. The objective of the DIY Markham campaign has been to engage residents to understand what life would be like without municipal services.
There are almost 200 people who now “Like” the DIY Markham campaign, and I have taken it upon myself to engage the candidates to embrace the DIY Campaign as part of their own and not only ensure that they are telling Markham residents about “Liking” DIY Markham, but that they are sharing the messages within the campaign.
The response by many of the candidates have been fantastic and we have even seen some of the candidates both using the DIY Markham Facebook page to share important information about the election and actively promoting the DIY Markham page on their own Facebook pages.
When registration for Internet Voting closed on Friday, there were 17,231 eligible Markham voters who have signed up for Internet Voting. That’s up over 6% from 2006. On Saturday, the first day of early voting, 1,162 votes were cast online. Internet Voting is open until Thursday, Oct 21st.
This year we have also continued our Internet Voting research, and we have partnered with Ryerson University who has received an NSERC grant to assist us in providing a more scholarly approach to our Internet Voting research. We are currently running our exit survey for everyone that votes online, we are studying the impact of social media on the election process and we will be conducting a candidate survey after the election.
To stay on top of what is going on with Internet Voting in the Markham Election, make sure you “Like” the DIY Markham Facebook page.