Londoners to weigh in on switching to ranked ballot system at open house meetings

Londoners will have an opportunity next week to make their voices heard on the issue of ditching first-past-the-post in favour of a ranked ballot system for municipal elections.

Legislatively required public open house meetings will be held next Wednesday and Thursday so residents can learn about the system and the process, share their opinions, and ask any questions they may have to city elections staff.

The four open houses will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at North London Optimist Community Centre and Medway Community Centre on Wednesday, and at Earl Nichols Arena Meeting Room and the Stronach Community Centre on Thursday.

In addition, Londoners will also be able to voice their concerns at a public participation meeting of the Corporate Services committee on Saturday, April 22 at 11 a.m.

“We have scheduled that as a Saturday meeting so as many people as possible can come,” said Ward 7 Coun. Josh Morgan.

“It’s the most important thing that citizens do in the municipal election cycle; making that election of who is going to represent them, so the method by which we do that is obviously a critical decision that needs to have significant public engagement and public feedback,” he said.

Ranked ballots would allow voters to place candidates in their order of preference, ensuring the winning candidate gets 50 per cent of the vote. The process would allow voters to pick the candidate they prefer most, instead of vote strategically, Morgan said.

“If the most preferred person is your neighbour, and they may not have a chance at winning, if you’ve ranked someone second your vote will still go on and be counted,” he said.

A decision on whether to move to the new system has to be made by May 1 if the city wants ranked ballots to be in place for next year’s municipal election. If the city chooses to switch, it would be the first city in the province to do so. The change would come at a cost of around $322,000, according to city staff.

“Londoners should come out and participate and let us know their thoughts, and if they can’t participate in one of the meetings that’s been set up, email your councillors, send in the information, what you think on this, so we have as much information as possible before we decide on how we’re going to proceed,” Morgan said.

“How we’re going to proceed could be a number of things, whether that’s to do it in 2018, whether that’s to set a course to do it in 2022, or whether or not to do it at all. Everything’s on the table at this point.”