Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington has some major concerns about the prospect of the provincial government allowing online voting.
"The attorney general and her office should know that the problems are almost insurmountable," she said on Monday.
Last week, Minster of Justice and Attorney General Shirley Bond announced that she has asked B.C.'s chief electoral officer, Keith Archer, to convene a panel to look into the use of Internet-based voting in other jurisdictions to determine any technological or logistical barriers that exist.
"Our province is widely recognized as being technologically progressive and a leader in open government initiatives," Bond said.
"If the independent panel determines we can maintain the utmost electoral integrity, I'm optimistic Internet voting could increase accessibility for British Columbians to participate in the democratic process."
Huntington said she is not confident the technology exists today to make online voting secure enough to guard against hacking or people abusing the system to stuff the ballot box.
"I don't see it working at all," she said.
Huntington added that she has spoken to some experts on the subject who, she said, are also "very, very concerned."
"The security issues are profound and very real."
Huntington said the practice has been plagued with problems when used during leadership votes for political parties. She said voters were acquiring multiple PINs and holding "PIN parties" in an effort to cast multiple votes for one candidate.
More than 40 municipalities in Ontario and Eastern Canada conduct a portion of voting online.
New Democratic Party attorney-general critic Leonard Krog said he is pleased with the announced review.
"This will be an opportunity for an independent officer of the legislature to create a panel that will hopefully give the government and the legislature and British Columbians the information and evidence it needs to determine whether or not [online voting] is feasible, practical and most importantly whether, if implemented, it would have integrity," he said, adding he does not hold a strong opinion on the subject.
"I don't have a personal leaning on Internet voting one way or the other. What I am personally strong on, and what [NDP leader Adrian Dix] is very strong on obviously is increasing voter participation," Krog said.
"Internet voting may be one of the tools by which we can increase participation and ensure that the governments fairly represent the people who actually are citizens."
