Voting process becoming more automated
When voters go to the polls in June, they might think for a moment they’re at a checkout lane in a grocery store.
About half of polling stations in the upcoming provincial election will have bar code scanners instead of printed voter lists. Voter cards will have bar codes similar to what you would find on a box of cereal or can of soup.
At locations with several polls in the same room, gone will be the days of voters queued up at the one station where they can get their ballot.
“It’s more of a bank teller approach,” Greg Essensa, Ontario’s chief electoral officer, said Thursday. Essensa said voters at the polling stations with the new technology will be able to walk up to the “first available agent.” At Essensa’s urging, the province is introducing the bar code scanners as well as automated ballot tabulators for the first time for the June 7 election. It’s one of several changes voters will see on election day, and in the registration process in the weeks leading up to it. Essensa said the new technology will save money by cutting down on the number of people needed to run polls, and make it easier and faster for voters to receive their ballots.
Once marked with an “X,” the ballots will be fed into computerized tabulators designed to make the reporting of results quicker than in the past.
Since the ballots are still on paper, recounts by hand will still be possible, Essensa said. And, just as with traditional ballot boxes, voters can watch their ballots being fed into the machine.
“It’s a very transparent process.” If you vote at a location with a single poll, like an apartment building, for example, it’s unlikely you will see the new technology, Essensa explained. It’s being used in busier locations like community centres and schools. While only half of locations will have the technology, about 90 per cent of voters will use it.
Voters should receive their cards in the mail in mid-May, Essensa said. Voters should go to elections. on.ca to make sure they are registered and to ensure their address and other information is correct. The province has increased the number of ridings in the upcoming election to 124 from 107. The increase may result in polling station locations changing from previous elections.
Essensa said voters should read their cards carefully and note the poll location.
Essensa said there are already more than 10 million voters registered. He expects that number to grow to more than 10.2 million in the coming month. While 90 per cent of voters aged 90 regularly cast ballots, only slightly more than 30 per cent of voters aged 18 to 24 do, Essensa said. To engage this “most challenging ” demographic, Elections Ontario is holding events on 50 college and university campuses across the province.
And, for the first time, the province is amassing a registry of future voters, aged 16 and 17. Once these teens turn 18, they are automatically “promoted” to the voters’ list. “What we’ve learned is we needed to engage them before they turn 18,” Essensa said. “If we get someone to vote at 18, we have them for life.”
Elections Ontario is also looking for workers to staff polls in advance polls and on election day. It also needs people to go door-todoor to make revisions to the voters’ list. In all, it is looking to hire 55,000 people across the province. Applications are accepted online at elections.on.ca