Previous ballot counter in Red Deer municipal election (rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Alessia Proietti

Voting tabulators

City of Red Deer ensures integrity in first municipal byelection

Apr 10, 2024 | 2:29 PM

With the City of Red Deer’s first by-election less than two weeks away; some residents are questioning how integrity will be maintained throughout the process.

Following the death of Councillor Michael Dawe in December 2023, 11 candidates have registered to fill the vacant seat, with the by-election taking place on April 22.

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Voters will have numerous opportunities to cast their ballots. Advance Voting will be available from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from April 18 to 20, with voters able to select one of three locations at Parkland Mall, Baymont by Wyndham Red Deer or Westerner Park. The same voting stations will be open for voters from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 22.

Jessica Robinson, Returning Officer and City Clerk, confirmed that automated voting tabulators will be utilized, as they have been since 1992. She says they are efficient, well established, and continually trusted.

“The City of Red Deer is committed to delivering an ethical, secure, and accessible election with layers of security measures which are set-up to ensure the integrity and reliability of election results,” she said.

The City will be using tabulators by Smartmatic for the first time. While a different company from the one used during the municipal and provincial elections, she says they are internationally utilized, and met their local criteria.

Like former elections, residents will show their identification upon entering a station to prove eligibility. They will then fill a paper ballot behind a secrecy sleeve and put the ballot in a secrecy folder to take to the tabulator. The tabulator will either accept the ballot or notify the voter of any errors, such as misleading markings for example, and offer an opportunity for a redo.

“The voting tabulators, a lot of time why people choose to use them, is that it doesn’t require election officials to interpret what a voter wants in reviewing the results at the end of the night,” she said, in comparison to paper ballots, adding that tabulators are also faster in counting the results.

Robinson said stations will also have accessibility options for the visually impaired.

STEPS TOWARDS INTEGRITY

She explained the various steps the City is taking to ensure integrity, beginning with rigid user-acceptance tests and logic and accuracy testing for the tabulators before the election, to ensure they count correctly and are configurated to comply with laws.

After testing, she says the tabulators and ballots are sealed and locked in a physically secure access area which is highly restricted to just authorized election officers.

On the day of the election, Robinson says tabulators and ballots are securely transported to the voting stations and only authorized officials can activate them with digital keys.

Before voting starts, she says ballot boxes and tabulators will be shown to the public to have zero votes.

During voting, the ballots cast are stored and encrypted on two secured digital (SD) cards that mirror each other to protect the data. During the process, she says candidates and scrutineers are encouraged to observe the integrity of the elections.

Finally, after voting stations close, authorized election officials will be printing unofficial results from the tabulator for each voting station in front of any candidates and their scrutineers. Those results are then securely transferred by election staff to the Counting Centre, located at City Hall, to be counted and consolidated using a results management system. Marked physical ballots are also sealed in the ballot box at each voting station and transferred to a physically secure and controlled access environment, she says.

Following Election Day, Robinson, as the Returning Officer, says she will then review the integrity of the processes, including a review of administrative and technical requirements, to ensure legislative compliance before confirming official results.

CONCERNS

Some residents voiced concerns over issues presented during the City of Calgary’s municipal election, including low battery levels causing voting delays and machines failing to report their results properly.

Robinson said each station will have two tabulators and a backup in case one has an issue, which should be unlikely.

However, she did say that according to the Local Authorities Election Act (LAEA), any recounts must be done in the same method that the initial count was made. In this case, that means recounts are also done with the tabulator.

Michael Francoeur, Assistant Communications Director, for Alberta Municipal Affairs, said the LAEA allows municipalities to pass a bylaw allowing for the use of voting machines and requires voting machine bylaws to prescribe the form of the ballots, directions for the marking of a ballot, and directions for voting procedures, including recounts “by machine or otherwise.” This means, it is a policy decision of the local municipal council regarding how a recount is to be completed through their bylaw. He added that bylaws may also prescribe directions for the use of ballot boxes, and directions for the use of tabulators.

“Municipal Affairs consulted with Albertans and municipal stakeholders in the fall of 2023 regarding opportunities to improve the Local Authorities Election Act. Issues relating to tabulators were part of that consultation process. The feedback received is being reviewed and considered for potential amendments to the legislation.”

He said the LAEA does not address how technical errors with voting machines must be handled. He added it also does not allow for judicial recounts involving tabulators, but does not prevent local returning officers from conducting recounts. Returning officers may conduct recounts if:

• A candidate, official agent, or a scrutineer of the candidate “shows grounds that the returning officer considers reasonable for alleging that the record of the result of the count of votes at any voting station is inaccurate”;
• The returning officer considers the number of valid ballots objected to, or rejected ballots, was sufficient to affect the result of the election; or
• The returning officer is of the opinion that “there may have been an administrative or technical error that may cause an error in the count of votes.”

Returning officers are also obligated to account for all ballots, including the number of ballots supplied. Municipal bylaws for voting machines may outline how a returning officer can ensure the number of valid ballots matches the results of the voting machines.

More information about the by-election is available at elections.reddeer.ca.

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