Bill 20 will be taking effect at the end of the month, and that bill will remove tabulators from municipal elections.
Okotoks Mayor, Tanya Thorn, says that removing voting tabulators from elections is a terrible idea, especially due to the fact that only a minority of those who voted on the change wanted them to get rid of voting tabulators and go back to hand counting the votes.
"They're basing on one Leger poll," Thorn says. "And I think the number he quoted was 36 per cent of Albertans want them to be gone. And I have concerns about the fact we sometime say it's the majority rule, and other times we are saying it's the minority that rules."
Thorn adds that there is no data about the over 60 per cent of people who were opposed to the removal of voting tabulators and going back to hang counting.
"There's tons of data out there that shows tabulators create timely elections and that the data can be trusted. There's a reason they've been doing it for the number of years that they have with tabulators. There's lots of data to show that," Thorn says. "And I think the 30 percent that don't trust tabulators, I do really believe that part of that is from conspiracy theory and what we saw come out of the U.S."
According to Thorn, the tabulators that are used in Canada are different than those used in the States.
On top of that, tabulators have been used in Canada for numerous different reasons over the years, including for diploma exams.
"We've done it for years. We don't challenge the results that come out from our High School diploma exams. So, why now?"
Thorn says that municipalities are pushing back on this bill, partly for two reasons.
The first reason is because, according to Thorn, no municipality was aware that removing tabulators was part of Bill 20 until the bill was announced last spring.
"There was no indication this was even on the radar of items to be discussed. It wasn't part of the survey data that we were asked for in any of the consultation that we did prior to Bill 20 coming out. So, I think that's one of why municipalities are pushing back a little. You've made a change and now you've made a change that is taking us backwards, from our perspective," Thorn says.
Not only that, but this change is going to cost municipalities more money per election to get the same results they did with the tabulators.
And it will take them longer to hand count the ballets than when using voting tabulators.
"Why should we, as municipal taxpayers, have to pay for you wanting to cater to a small group of people."
In Okotoks, Town Council has put forward a recommendation to not pass along that extra cost for this upcoming election, but to remove the Municipal Census from the upcoming budget, so they can cover the increased cost of the election without it affecting taxpayers.
"The Municipal Census project was already factored into the tax bills when we did it before. So, in essence, people are still paying for it, but what happens now is you're now paying the increased cost to the election," Thorn explains.
The Town now has to decide if they want to pay for a Municipal Census in upcoming years or wait for the Federal Census to come out.
"The drawback for our community of not doing that project is a big majority of the grant money that we have the ability access as a community is based on your census number."
Thorn says that it's been a few years since they have done a census, which is why they had it as part of this budget.
In future years, though, Thorn says there will come a year where the Town of Okotoks will have to cover both the census and an election.
That is unless they decide to drop something like the Municipal Census permanently and solely rely on the Federal census that happens every five years.
"There's drawbacks to that, depending on how quickly we are growing in terms of having accurate population numbers for our community. There's tradeoffs to it, but I guess my hope is that we will do it this year and realize it slowed down elections," Thorn says.
Thorn says that Okotoks will have to go to hand counting the ballets, which will slow down the election results.
Previously, with voting tabulators, officials had election results from the Okotoks election before 10 p.m. on the night of the election.
Now, Thorn says the results won't be in until at least 3 a.m.
"And that's just for us in Okotoks. In Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, they've made statements they might not have it for a week. And if there's a recount, because numbers are close, you will wait another time period. I think there's a lot that we are going need to see out of this election as to whether or not this has resulted in creating actual effective elections. And to the Minister's [McIver] comments, actually better confidence in the election with the elimination of tabulators."
Thorn says that tabulators have been used for the last several elections without issue.
"I have never once had a resident come and tell me that they had concerns about the election results."
To learn more about Bill 20, click here.
