Council facing midnight deadline to approve ranked ballots for municipal elections in London

Members of city council will cast their vote Monday to decide whether London becomes the first city in Canada to switch to ranked ballots.

If they want to ditch the current first-past-the-post system in time for next year’s municipal election, provincial legislation mandates a decision must be made by midnight on May 1.

Ranked ballots allow voters to place candidates in their order of preference, ensuring the winning candidate gets 50 per cent of the vote.

In the past three months of public consultation, fewer than 100 people attended information meetings, 40 people attended April’s public participation meeting, and 536 completed an online survey.

A motion to endorse ranked ballots for the 2018 election failed in a tie vote by the corporate services committee last month, after city staff warned they weren’t sure the vote-tabulating technology will be ready in time.

READ MORE: Results of London’s ranked ballots survey released

Ranked ballot advocate Dave Meslin with the group 123 Ontario argues the technology is already being used south of the border and in this month’s Conservative party leadership vote.

“The machines exist, they’re being used all the time,” he said. “[It won’t be fair to Londoners] if a member of council stands up and pretends to support reform and says, ‘yeah, reform is good but we’re just not sure the technology exists yet,’ because that’s just a complete fabrication and it’s misleading, and it misleads the public and that’s not how democracy is supposed to work.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The machines exist, they're being used all the time," he said. "[It won't be fair to Londoners] if a member of council stands up and pretends to support reform and says, 'yeah, reform is good but we're just not sure the technology exists yet,' because that's just a complete fabrication and it's misleading, and it misleads the public and that's not how democracy is supposed to work."

Meslin feels proud London is considering making the switch.

“The general rule with voting reform is that politicians don’t like to change the system that got them elected, right? Once they’re in, they’re like, ‘let’s not rock the boat,’ so what almost every council in Ontario did was just swept it under the rug. They didn’t even have consultations.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The general rule with voting reform is that politicians don't like to change the system that got them elected, right? Once they're in, they're like, 'let's not rock the boat,' so what almost every council in Ontario did was just swept it under the rug. They didn't even have consultations."

Once Monday’s council meeting begins at 5 p.m., city politicians will have seven hours to make a final decision.

According to city staff, changing to ranked ballots would come with a price tag of approximately $322,000 plus additional costs.