Paper ballots may be reinstated for the next municipal election in Bradford West Gwillimbury after a major online voting crash left a “black mark” on the community, said Mayor Rob Keffer.
He said there is a possibility of a “dual election” next time, which could include online and telephone voting, as well as paper ballots.
“The people on this side of the table (council) are not happy. That was a black mark on this town. There has to be a lot of thought put into the next (election),” he said during budget talks last week.
Dominion Voting Systems, which was responsible for BWG’s online voting in the 2018 municipal election, gave all the 51 municipalities affected by the slow down a 20 per cent reimbursement last month. That came to about $5,700 for the Town of BWG.
“That was not enough … for the black mark that was put on our municipality,” Keffer said. “Election day is election day. We put our heart and soul into knocking on doors. We expect to get the results on election night.”
During budget discussions, Keffer said he wanted to see the refund from Dominion Voting Systems help offset the tax base.
However, the town’s treasurer Ian Goodfellow explained the town is required to include it as part of its 2018 accounting, so it could not affect the 2019 budget.
Instead, Keffer suggested $20,000 be transferred from the tax stabilization reserve that was left over from the 2018 election.
“Internet voting did save us money,” he said, noting the town saves for each election over the course of four years.
He said the $20,000 transfer would amount to about a dollar per household, or a cup of coffee.
The town budgeted about $180,000 to run the 2018 municipal election, but it spent about $160,000, said the town’s clerk Rebecca Murphy.
She cautioned council that if it does want to include online, phone and paper ballot options for the next municipal election, “it’s not a small increase to do both.”
Deputy Mayor James Leduc said paper ballots could have helped the town get through the online voting crash.
“They (Dominion) screwed most of the people in Ontario,” he said.
