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| Federal Election Does It The
Old-Fashioned Way - Hand Counting One Ballot At A Time |
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| It's nice to see that at least the Federal elections like
to stick to the tried-and-true process of counting ballots - by hand, and
one ballot at a time!
Here, Robert Kirwan casts his vote during the Federal Elections on
January 23, 2006. His ballot was entered at Pole #71, which was the
responsibility of Deputy Returning Officer, Ray Sanche, and Poll Clerk,
Irene Fielding.
Both Ray and Irene stayed at the Polling station from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00
p.m. when the polls closed. Then they had to count the ballots in the
presence of scrutineers and report the results.
Municipal elections in Sudbury will be done electronically with voting
scanners - a method which resulted in some controversy during the 2003
elections.
THE JOHN ROBERT ISSUE |
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| In what has become known as the John Robert issue, the
question of whether or not electronic voting is the best option for the
municipality is still up in the air.
During the 2003 elections, John Robert lost in his quest for a seat in
Ward 4 to Andre Rivest by approximately 33 votes. Under the "old
system" an automatic recount would have been held. However, under the
"new system", City Council had the responsibility to determine
if a recount was in order. Since a recount had to be done in the same way
as the original vote, namely by electronic machines, the focus was rather
on the reliability of the machines instead of on whether or not the
"intent of the voters" was properly tabulated.
After extensive legal challenges, during which one judge severely
criticized the decisions of the City Council, John Robert was forced to
abandon his fight and the matter never was resolved.
Once again, in November 2006, voters will be forced to use electronic
machines and once again the question of whether or not the integrity of
the voting is being adhered to will come up. Apparently there is no
difference in cost by doing the counting manually. The only advantage of
using the machines is that it is not as hard on staff and the results are
known earlier in the evening. Some question whether the potential
sacrificing of the integrity of the election is worth the savings of time. |
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PLEASE SEND YOUR COMMENTS
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| COMMENTS FROM READERS: |
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I do not trust electronic voting and was glad to see that the
Federal government realized the in this case the tried and true
method of voting was the way to go. As usual, municipal
government has absolutely no respect for the wishes of the
population and we will be forced to comply with it's dictate.
If it was good enough for the federal government it should be good
enough for the municipal government.
M.Wright
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