Breadcrumb Trail Links
NewsElectionLocal News
The tech won’t replace paper ballots, but will make sure 98 per cent of votes, including absentee and mail-in ballots, are counted on election night
Article content
The ballot box that voters step up to during the Oct. 19 election will include an electronic tabulator for the first time in a B.C. provincial election
It will be the most visible of the technological changes Elections B.C. is introducing this election intended to make voting easier and speed up results on election night.
The devices won’t be unfamiliar, resembling the scanners that have been used in municipal elections for some time in B.C.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Elections B.C. doesn’t want you to call them voting machines because they’re not going to replace paper ballots, they simply count the ballots voters cast.
“Paper ballots are the gold standard in election administration,” said Elections B.C. spokesperson Andrew Watson. He said they “cannot be hacked” and means the option for recounting ballots by hand remains in close races.
Another significant change will be the introduction of an electronic voters list, which election workers will access through networked laptops to check off who has voted — instead of looking them up in thick, printed books of names they strike a line through.
Watson said Elections B.C. recommended the changes in 2018 in a report aimed at increasing the accessibility and efficiency of the overall system. The legislature approved the changes in 2019 for the 2024 election. He added they’re borrowing from the experience of provinces such as Ontario and Alberta.
“The voting process will feel familiar to voters as it retains key aspects of B.C.’s voting model,” Watson said.
Voters will still get paper ballots that they mark behind privacy screens. But they will just run those ballots through a tabulator before being dropping into a ballot box. Tabulators will also notify voters when their ballots cannot be read, giving the chance to make corrections.
Article content
Advertisement 3
Article content
Q. How will the electronic voters list help voters?
A. Looking up voter names electronically to check them off should be faster than the process of leafing through thick books of printed names. The electronic list will also allow voters to cast ballots at any voting place, not just the location designated on the voting card they receive from Elections B.C. Workers will print off ballots with their constituency’s candidate names.
Q. What will the electronic tabulators look like?
A. The tabulators will look just like the scanners voters will have used during municipal elections in B.C. Ballots will look similar, with candidate names appearing alphabetically on the face, but will be printed on 8.5 inch by 11 inch paper stock. Instead of marking ballots with a pencil, voters will use a felt-tipped pen to fill in the circle, or mark an X, next to their chosen candidate’s name.
Q. How secure are the vote tabulators?
A. Tabulators are never connected to the internet, which isolates them from the risk of hacking. Physical access to the devices is limited to election officials and controlled through a chain of custody process. Elections B.C. will test the accuracy of all tabulators before and after use, including a “zero tape” test in which officials print a paper report to show candidate representatives that the devices have tallied no votes before accepting any ballots. The machines being used are being leased from Elections Ontario.
Advertisement 4
Article content
Q. How will the vote tabulators improve vote counting?
A. Besides counting votes in their designated constituencies immediately, tabulators will also be able to accommodate absentee ballots, as well as mail-in ballots. So an estimated 98 per cent of votes will be counted on election night itself. Previously, absentee and mail-in votes couldn’t be counted until the final vote count, usually about two weeks after election day, to allow for the manual checks of paper lists needed to verify voter eligibility. With the electronic systems, those checks can be done almost in real-time.
Q. What happens to the paper ballots?
A. Elections B.C. retains all ballots after they are counted, which allows for results to be audited and for recounts. This includes hand-counted results from randomly selected tabulators as part of Elections B.C.’s quality assurance program to demonstrate security of the system. One tabulator from each constituency will be selected for the hand count. The ballots in recounts of closely contested races will also be counted by hand. All ballots will also be kept in secure storage for one year after the election.
Advertisement 5
Article content
Q. How accessible will the new systems be?
A. Elections B.C. plans to make a voting system available in every constituency’s electoral office for voters who cannot mark a traditional ballot, such as hose with sight loss or inability to use their hands. The system will give voters the option to hear an audio list of candidates and they will then be able to independently register their choices through hand-held devices, sip-and-puff straws or paddles.
depenner@postmedia.com
x.com/derrickpenner
Recommended from Editorial
Important dates and timelines for the 2024 B.C. election
Election fears trump supportive-housing for B.C. NDP
B.C. election: United announces candidates will run in select ridings
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: For just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.
Article content
Share this article in your social network