Duane Hicks
The 2018 municipal election will see local voters continue to use the tried and true “first-past-the-post” electoral system, but they will be able to cast their ballots by phone or online.
Town council unanimously agreed Monday to stick with the traditional system over a ranked ballot one.
“Based on what I feel, I think we should stick with the ‘first-past-the-post’ method,” said Coun. Paul Ryan.
“Ranked ballot voting isn’t used very much in the province yet, and isn’t being used provincially or federally,” he noted.
“It’s going to take a lot of education for people to vote that way, so I’m in favour of staying the way we are for the next one [election].
“And maybe consider it down the road as it becomes more popular and the education process is a little more than it is today,” Coun. Ryan added.
“I don’t think we should chart the waters,” echoed Mayor Roy Avis.
“I think we should fall in line and when the feds and provincial government decide to do it, we should reconsider and go forward,” he said.
With the “first-past-the-post” system, the candidate with the most votes wins and there is no requirement to obtain a certain percentage of the vote.
In a ranked ballot election, the voter ranks the candidates in order of preference (i.e., first choice, second choice, third choice, etc.)
In the first round of counting, all first-choice votes are counted.
If one of the candidates receives more than 50 percent of the votes, then a winner is declared.
But if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the votes, the one with the lowest number of votes is eliminated and the ballots are recounted using the second choice of those voters.
This process continues in subsequent rounds until a majority winner is declared.
Council did agree, however, to move away from the vote-by-mail system used in the recent past and instead step into the 21st century by allowing residents to vote using the Internet or a phone.
This option provides eligible electors with the choice of voting from home or while travelling, and with hours that suit many schedules, including shift work.
As well, telephone/Internet voting gives eligible electors with a disability the option to vote utilizing their existing aids (i.e., big button phone, screen recognition readers, etc.)
Town clerk Lisa Slomke noted Dryden, Kenora, Red Lake, and Sioux Lookout all will be using telephone/Internet voting in next year’s municipal election.
“I think we should go for telephone/Internet,” said Mayor Avis.
“I think in the system we have [vote-by-mail], there’s a lot of flaws there and I think this will help,” he remarked.
Coun. Ryan agreed, noting he’s spoken with councillors in Kenora, where they tried phone/Internet voting in 2014 and “it worked very well.”
Coun. Ken Perry reasoned it’s better to make one change at a time to the election process.
So for instance, if the town might switch to ranked balloting in 2022, it’s better to switch to phone/Internet voting in 2018 rather than make two changes at once.
Coun. June Caul said she feels very comfortable using the phone/Internet voting system, as the town’s clerk is familiar with it and thus the transition will be easier.
The Town of Fort Frances had a budget of $30,000 to use vote-by-mail in 2014.
Slomke noted previously that she feels the same budget would be sufficient to deliver the elections in 2018 using telephone/Internet voting.
