Voters in the 2018 Ontario General Election now have a new way to cast their ballot.
For the first time, Elections Ontario is introducing technology at the polls which is intended to make voting and ballot counting quicker and easier.
Twenty-six of just over 40 voting sites in the Nipissing District are using electronic voting machines. In rural areas where the technology is not available, voting will be as it always has been, with voting tabulations done by hand once the polls close on election night.
“The intention I think is to expand it to be almost 100 percent of the polls next time,” said Jim Mallory Returning Officer for Elections Ontario for the Electoral District of Nipissing.
Mallory says the new technology is straightforward.
“One of our officials will be there with what they call an e-Poll Book (electronic poll book) which is the list of electors in an electronic form. You will show them your voter information card which has a coded number on it, along with some other form of identification. They’ll scan that, and it will strike your name off from the voting list, and you’ll be given a ballot. You’ll take it and mark it and then take it to the person who will run what is called a tabulator machine. They will insert that, and it’s covered so the tabulator operator can’t see who that person is voting for. You push it into the machine, it will take the ballot, and you're done."
The Returning Officer explains that vote will be counted immediately.
“It’s perfectly secret. There’s no opportunity for anybody for anybody to determine who you voted for or anything like that. And on election night those machines will be brought back to this centre (Returning Office at the North Bay Mall) and in a process that’s pretty straightforward, but exacting, those results will be spit out to us within minutes after the polls are closed.”
Electronic voting machines are particularly beneficial in largely populated areas.
“There are polls in this district that will have as many as 2,500 electors in them, but we’ll be able to process those people so much quicker. Election’s Ontario is assuming that it could take maybe two to three minutes for you to get in and get out, as opposed to the long lineups that occurred before, where people were frustrated by the length of time it took to vote.”
People made good use of the advance polls in the Nipissing District.
“We think it’s been pretty active. From what our workers have told us, it’s been pretty steady and people seem to be impressed with the way they can get in and out so quickly. And we’ve had no problems with the machines at the advance polls."
Eligible voters can still vote using the special ballot option up until 6 p.m. Wednesday June 6, the day prior to the election.
“We opened officially on May 3rd, and sadly it wasn’t made aware well enough that you could come and vote any day we were open, right here at the Returning Office at a special ballot option. The special ballot option is open until 6 p.m. on Wednesday June 6th. So people can still, even though the advance polls are closed, they can come in here, or the satellite office in Mattawa at the Lion’s Club, and vote," said Mallory.
“We also have an option that has been very active, called home visit. If someone is infirmed, and they can’t get out to vote, they call us, we send a team of two to their home and take their vote there. And that is also up until 6 p.m. the day before the election.”
On election day, Thursday, June 7, polls will open at 9 a.m. and close at 9 p.m.
