Maybe we should start voting by phone  |  September 12, 2007  

Tuesday night Brian Melo was crowned the new Canadian Idol, beating out teenager Jaydee Bixby. Melo was clearly the better performer and deserved the title.

The 2007 Idol season saw a total 37,321,772 votes cast, through either text messaging on cellphones or by dialing plain old landline phones. And here’s the kick in the head: that total is 62 per cent more votes than were placed in the 2006 federal election. And while it’s not a direct comparison—the Idol total is spread over many separate votes, for example—it is depressing that we can get young people to vote for the best Bon Jovi cover but we struggle to get them out on voting day to help decide who will lead our country.

So maybe it’s time to seriously consider alternate voting methods. We can’t go the phone route—you can’t stop people from voting more than once, for example, as they often do on Canadian Idol—but perhaps we should be able to vote online. It has worked well in the town of Markham, Ont. www.backbonemag.com/Magazine/Backspace_09070706.asp

There are security and privacy issues to be addressed with online voting and simply offering more choice is not going to convince everyone to vote, but when a game show starring unknown singers easily out performs federal elections it’s time for drastic measures.

Peter Wolchak