Once Bitten Twice Shy

I guess city officials are wary of any new system after the last debacle with computer purchases.

Online voting a no-go for T.O.

By ZEN RURYK, CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Toronto voters wanting the chance to cast ballots online in a municipal election are out of luck -- until 2018.

A newly released online survey found 69% of GTA residents who plan to vote in the Nov. 13 election would prefer to use their computers to cast ballots electronically -- if the service was offered.

The survey of 1,072 people was sponsored by Delvina Interactive, a company that works with Markham which runs online advance polls.

Markham is the only GTA municipality to embrace online voting.

While people can vote electronically from Nov. 4-9, the municipality does not offer the service on election day.

$13M SYSTEM

Election officials in Toronto won't consider changing the city's voting system until after the 2014 municipal election.

Greg Essensa, Toronto's elections director, said the city spent $13 million on a voting tabulation system that was put in place in 2000. The plan adopted at that time stipulated the equipment was to last for five elections.

Before the purchase city officials consulted with the public about the issue, Essensa said.

I would like to see some documention showing who was consulted, the number of people consulted, etc. I would like some tangible proof.

"We asked about various voting systems," he added. "One of the overriding messages that came back to us was that most people wanted to have a tangible piece of evidence of how they voted."