Aberdeen council chiefs have launched a hunt for a technology firm to provide new ways of voting to increase low turnout in the city.
At last year’s council elections, just 37.6% of the electorate cast their ballots and, in the 2016 Holyrood elections, fewer than half voted in the city.
The local authority is now seeking “the provision of e-voting solutions” which could include the possibility of being able to vote online, through SMS text, electronic touchpads at polling stations or even over the phone.
It is understood that anything brought forward will initially be used for community council elections and then potentially rolled out to others.
The contract is expected to be awarded on September 24.
But the selected firm must also find out how to avoid “double voting” and the new system must be “fully auditable” and allow various methods of voting to simultaneously take place – including the traditional polling booth method.
In March, the Scottish Government Minister for Parliamentary Business, Joe Fitzpatrick MSP, reaffirmed a commitment to undertaking pilots of electronic voting.
However, this has proved controversial both in the UK and further afield, notably in the United States.
During the 2004 presidential election, the state of California ordered 15,000 of its Diebold voting machines not to be used due to flaws.
And earlier this year in Angus, a Forfar councillor argued that any introduction of electronic machines into elections was a “disaster waiting to happen”.
A council spokesman said: “Electronic voting is employed with the objective of improving accessibility, convenience and therefore turnout.
“It is convenient to voters, secure and economical. It is well suited to the voting system which our community council elections use and ensures the counting of votes is quick and accurate.
“The current tendering process is for an estimated value of between £115,000 and £294,440 over a four-year period and is for all lots, that is printing and issuing poll cards, postal voting packs, ballot papers, postal vote management, electronic voting solutions and electronic counting system.”
Aberdeen South MP Ross Thomson said: “People in Aberdeen will remember being able to vote online during the referendum on the City Garden Project in 2012.
“That system was easy to use and allowed local residents to have their say from the comfort of their own homes.”
