By Staff

February 10th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

We got this one wrong.  The item wasn’t debated which meant there wasn’t an opportunity to learn what council members thought of letting people vote online during both the advance poll and on election day

The next municipal election will be held on October 26, 2026. Municipal and school board elections are held every four years and are administered by the City Clerk as the Returning Officer

The Municipal Elections Act, 1996 permits municipalities to utilize alternative voting methods and vote-counting equipment for its municipal elections. To authorize alternative voting methods and the use of optical scan tabulators, Council must pass a by-law by May 1, 2026. Notice of contract extension must be provided by March 31, 2025.

Council was asked to:

Approve the use of optical scan vote tabulators for in-person voting throughout advance polls and on election day, and that internet voting be authorized for advance voting in the 2026 Municipal election.

Key findings.

The 2022 Municipal Election had a 27.6% voter turnout where 39, 217 electors voted out of 142,218 eligible.

These are not numbers the city should be proud of nor are they numbers council embers should see as a respectable mandate.

14,980 electors voted online, up by 12.5% from 13,123 in 2018.

In the 2022 municipal election, internet voting was available for 10 days from October 11th to Oct 20th.

64% of the post-election survey respondents indicated they voted online, and of those, 96% found the process to be easy and convenient.

In December 2021, the contract was awarded to Voatz Inc., for internet voting services along with Election Systems & Software (ES&S) for optical scan tabulators. Voatz provided a secure and accessible system for casting and reconciling votes.

Benefits:

Internet voting is convenient, helps reduce barriers and increases accessibility of the process, eliminates spoiled ballots, and provides an accurate ballot count. Coupled with the use of optical scan vote tabulators at in-person voting locations on Election Day, it allows for quick and accurate results.

The post-election survey conducted in 2022 provided insight into the voter experience. Survey responses and additional information on the 2022 election is available in the CL-07-23 2022 post-election report. Survey results indicated strong support for the use of online voting for future municipal elections in Burlington.

Was this a COVID Council?  The voter turnout was in the 27% range. The City was still in the post-COVID period when things were not normal.

For the 2026 municipal election, staff will once again work closely with the Communications team to develop a comprehensive communications and engagement plan for the election focusing on the availability, accessibility, and security of online voting. The election team will also create online voting guides for electors to further improve the online voter experience and to assist in the process, with the goal of encouraging more voters to utilize this method of voting.

Staff recommend using internet voting as an advance voting option as it provides a secure and accessible way for electors to cast their ballot from anywhere and at any time during the 10- day internet voting period. It is the approach used successfully in 2022 and voters in Burlington are familiar with the process.

Although expanding internet voting to election day may provide more convenience, the risks outweigh the benefits. Any voting slowdowns or system timeouts may require the Clerk to utilize emergency powers to extend voting hours delaying election results. Supporting two different voting methods (online and at a polling station) will require significantly more staff to support the voting processes and could significantly impact the voting experience both at the polls and online. Anyone not registered to vote, would still be required to go to a voting location to be added to the voter’s list on election day where they could vote right there and then. For access and convenience, Burlington employs the “vote anywhere in your ward” system, meaning that electors do not have to go to an assigned voting location, but can vote at any of the voting locations in their ward.

The cost of the 2022 alternative voting methods was $194,541. Costs for the 2026 municipal election are expected to include inflationary increases and any change orders to the statement of work with the vendors.  The source of funding for the election is the reserve fund with an annual contribution of $160,000.

This item wasn’t debated.  It was placed on the Agenda as a Consent item which meant it would not be debated unless a Council member asked to have the item removed from the Consent agenda.

For those readers who commented – you might want to rethink what you submitted.