HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-12-09, Page 10Page 10 - Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Optical voting
Gerard Creces
signal -star staff
The days of counting votes are over for
Goderich municipal staff, as Council passed a
bylaw Nov. 30 to authorize the use of optical
scanning machines for municipal elections.
scanners approved for next municipal election
The leased machines come at a cost of
$12,300 and will all but eliminate human er-
ror from the electoral process.
Deputy treasurer Lori Rounds said because
technology upgrades so frequently, the ma-
chines would only be leased.
"Stuff changes so quickly, they'd be out of
date by the time the next election came," she
said.
Rounds said one of the main reasons for
the optical vote scanners is to save time and
stress on election nights, where staff are phys-
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• •
ically there from before the polls open until
after they've closed.
"The staff is tired after being there from
9 a.m. on," she said. "Most elections we are
still counting from when the polls close to
about 11 p.m.
"You can't be sure it will be accurate"
The same cannot be said for the scanners,
Rounds added. Typically, when counting by
hand, spoiled ballots are thrown away. With
the scanner, voters will actually know wheth-
er or not their ballot is acceptable.
"The way it works, you mark the ballot and
put it in the machine ,yourself;" she said. "It
will either accept it or tell you you marked
one too many."
After that, the voter would be asked to ei-
ther confirm their ballot or be handed a new
one to properly fill out.
"It helps the person voting to make sure it's
done correctly and helps prevent recounts,"
she said. "But the good thing is you still have
paper ballots."
The town stands to save money with the
transaction, both in staff and legal fees, and
staff from Dominion Voting - the company
supplying the tabulators - will be on -hand in
case anything goes wrong.
Rounds said the town is also prepared with
generators in case power goes down during
the election.
The town could also face a few more
changes to election procedures should Bill
212 pa., s under the Good Government Act of
2009. The bill was just introduced October
27. to the provincial legislature.
If passed, municipal elections would move
from November 8 to October 25, as well as
carry changes to accessibility, financing and
compliance issues.
"There are a whole pile of changes,"
Rounds said. 'We're just kind of waiting to
see if it passes before we can do anything."
In the meantime, she said municipal staff
are hopeful the public is accepting of the new
election procedures and offers reassurance
that the system will make for more accurate
results.
Photo by Denny Scott
Rousing chorus
The Blyth Festival Singers (above),
sing holiday hits at Knox Presbyterian
Church Sunday, December 6.
a