Consent Form

Welcome to the THREE VOTES ONTARIO Project. The project is designed to understand how different electoral systems might change the outcome of Ontario elections. We appreciate you taking time to participate.

In the following section of the website, you will be asked to vote as if you were voting in the 2011 Ontario election. You will be invited to participate in three elections, each with a different electoral system. You will be given the opportunity to vote in a First Past the Post election (the system used now), an alternative vote election and a proportional representation election. You will be given information about how each system works and will be asked for your vote. The elections will be presented in a random order and will last from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on how much time you spend reading the information.

After you vote, we will ask you a few questions. This is important for us so we can identify and explain trends. If for any reason you wish not to answer any question, you can always choose not to answer it. Participation is voluntary and all of your answers are completely anonymous. Yours answers will be stored in a database hosted on our server, in Canada.

Your participation today will help us understand how voters would cast their votes under different electoral systems. The results of this study will be made public shortly after the October 6 election. There are no known risks associated with participating in this study.

Thank for your time and your participation. If you have any questions please contact Professor William Cross ([email protected]) from the Department of Political Science at Carleton University. Any complaints about your participation in this study can be addressed to Antonio Gualtieri, chair of Carleton’s Research Ethics Board, by emailing [email protected].