Automated voting system to save hours
Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter
Election time will go smoother this year than it has in past years at least, for the ballot counters, that is.
In previous years voting was done with paper ballots tucked into a box and counted at the end of the night. Betty Gaskarth, municipal clerk for the town of Strathmore was one of the unfortunate who had to stay and count the ballots, sometimes staying until 3 a.m.
“It’s a long process to complete and last time we had a lot of candidates on the ballot and so it’s a lot of counting,” said Gaskarth.
The Town will now be using an automated voting system and the machine which counts the votes is similar to a scanner.
The ballot will have whoever is running for mayor on it, whoever is running for councillor in another section and the third and fourth sections will be for the school divisions and whoever is running for the positions there.
“People will take these and you would give them what is called a secrecy sleeve, then they would mark the ballots, and then put them in the secrecy sleeve and then bring it back, and then it is run through the scanner,” said Gaskarth.
Voters will fill in the bubbles or mark them with an X. The ballot will be an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper and it can be double sided if there are a lot of candidates.
“The scanner will also pick up if there are any errors on it, that sort of thing, and then they have an opportunity to correct those errors at that point,” said Gaskarth.
“I personally have never voted at one of these machines so I’m going by what I have read. A lot of other municipalities use them and then at the end of the night there’s a memory card that comes out of it and it goes into a machine that brings up all the results.”
She had also considered a touch screen voting system, but had concerns if there were to be a recount, and felt more comfortable with this system.
It was a unanimous decision by council to put Bylaw 10-10 into place for the new voting system.
“I just have to say it’s good the girls won’t have to be here until 3 a.m.,” said Councillor Earl Best.
The next municipal election is on October 18.