Woodstock City Council Decides Against Online Voting for Next Municipal Election

Tuesday, 25 May 2021 06:49

Woodstock City Councillor Jerry Acchione put forward a motion to introduce online voting for next municipal election, but he was forced to withdraw it after none of his fellow councillors stepped up to second it.

WOODSTOCK - Woodstock City Council elected to stick with the status quo when it comes to voting in municipal elections.

At the most recent meeting, Councillor Jerry Acchione put forward a motion to have ballots cast online only. He could not find anyone on council to second his motion.

“I was trying to ensure our Community was better represented at City Hall by making it easier for everyone to cast their vote if they had a Wi-Fi signal. I feel my daughters generation up to even my own generation are so much busier and are accustomed to banking online, shopping online, and ordering dinner online that we are ready for this natural shift to voting online. Especially considering what we are going through with Covid safety concerns let alone the environmental reasons of online voting being a much lower carbon footprint and eventually the much lower costs to the tax payer of not having to pay the amount of people to help at the voting booths and even the ballots wasted. I’m disappointed with the vote. I strongly feel that having a higher voter turnout allows City Hall and Council to represent the Community better as that’s what our job is, in my opinion.“

Without a seconder, Councillor Acchione had to withdraw the motion.

Mayor Trevor Birtch explains why council had an issue moving everything online.

"One of the concerns that council had with moving straight to an online only voting method, so that would do away with paper ballots that people had become accustomed to here in the Friendly City. The cost of moving over to electronic voting, would be higher than a regular election."

The higher cost included make the initial change and running an education campaign.

The City was also presented with a hybrid option, which would have kept paper ballots, and voting at a poll. Birtch says that option was also too expensive.

"That would be something, that if money was no object, we would look at doing that, but the cost of going that way, would be about $100,000 more than sticking with our status quo."

In the end, council decided to stick with the status quo, so voting in the next municipal election will be done as it always has been done, with residents going to the polls. You can also mail in your vote and they do allow for absentee votes.