Web developer says he advised against using Sercada online election system
February 9, 2026 3:37 AM
A web developer for the students’ union who was tasked with the responsibility of testing the security of the Sercada vote system says that he had strong reservations about using the system for the general election held last week.
“Within an hour of testing, I was able to cripple the system,” Ben Burns said at a council information session held Friday, February 5 in Council Chambers.
“The results of my findings included password problems, and more importantly, I discovered a flaw in the system which would make the system actually fail if an abundance of users access the system at one time,” he continued.
The Sercada system was utilized for less than an hour of voting on Tuesday, February 2. The system crashed at 9:36 a.m. After that, the elections team reverted to the online voting system that had been used in previous years’ elections.
Burns indicated that both he and Lead Web Developer Dan Enman expressed their concerns to VP Communications Sarah Furey.
A meeting was held on the Friday prior to the elections to call and talk to Sercada’s representatives. In attendance were Burns, Furey, and Students’ Union President Sandy MacIntosh.
“David Mattie of Sercada dismissed my findings and said it could happen to any system,” explained Burns. “But I reassured him that this system was especially vulnerable with the way it was developed.”
Burns says they then met with Chair of Council Dave Faour to note their concerns.
“We mentioned that there needs to be a contingency plan regardless,” he explained. “[And that] we need to test a contingency plan before we do any type of election system or any type of voting on election days.”
Burns told those present at the council information session last Friday that he was contacted by the vp of communications on the Sunday prior to the election and was told he may need to present his report to council that evening. He again indicated he was opposed to using the Sercada system.
“I did make it clear to Furey, however, that ultimately this is her decision, and as a team, we will collectively support it,” he said. “I was then told I wasn’t going to be needed to present to council [that night].”
Furey indicated that she had planned on bringing up Sercada at the council meeting that evening, but then changed her mind. She also noted this issue was not on council’s agenda.
“I did ask Ben to give me back-up for what I was going to say,” explained Furey. “And then I decided that I wasn’t going to say that at the council meeting.”
She says her decision to use the Sercada system was based on the professional recommendation of David Mattie.
The web developer went on to say that on Monday, the day before the election, he was told to redirect traffic from the students’ union website, theu.ca, to the election website, votetheu.ca.
“So essentially, anyone who goes to the U website was going to be pushed to the new vote system,” he explained. “And again I kind of voiced my concerns about using the system.”
On Tuesday, Burns said he checked his email at 9:30 a.m. and found 27 emails in his inbox that indicated the election system had been having problems since going live at 9 a.m.
He then sent two emails further issuing his concerns to Mattie, Furey, Enman and Returning Officer Alex Dorward. He stated that he felt these emails went unnoticed.
“Sarah Furey called me and wanted to talk about what was going on,” Burns explained. “I asked about a contingency plan, and was informed that there was none existing except for having the old system up and running.”
“Even though it was up, it was not configured at that time, so this wasted valuable time and eager votes,” he noted.
Burns’ conclusion was that the failure of the Sercada system within the first hour of voting was due to the same flaw he noted during his original testing.
“Furthermore,” he said. “[T]he fact that I was instructed to redirect all traffic from theu.ca to the Sercada vote system not only made matters worse, but was one of the leading factors to the system’s failure, outside its flawed design.”