Calgary’s chief returning officer said Monday she will be working to determine what went wrong in the municipal election after reports of long lines at voting stations, ballot problems and delays reporting results.
Laura Kennedy said she will “review the election processes” and report back to city administration and council at the end of 2018.
WATCH BELOW: Calgary Returning Officer explains ballot shortage on 2017 election night
Kennedy said that everyone in line as of 8 p.m. on Monday was able to cast their ballot, but that some voters spent over an hour waiting. She said the last station began reporting results at 9:15 p.m.
WATCH: David Boushy reports on why the City of Calgary has apologized and why the returning officer said it might be time to seriously consider using electronic voting machines in the next municipal election.
She said she couldn’t say with certainty how many people left without voting because of the size of the lineups, but added that 58 per cent voter turnout indicates “a lot of people did vote.”
“We know we have to be better,” Calgary city solicitor and general counsel Glenda Cole said, apologizing for the delays. “It’s too early to talk about specific items, but I can assure you that we will be reviewing everything that occurred.”
When asked to comment on reports that some stations had run out of ballots, Kennedy said that’s one of the processes she is reviewing.
She said Elections Calgary sent out 50 to 60 per cent of the voter turnout – which is in line with historic voter turnout – so that they wouldn’t flood the voting stations with excess ballots.
WATCH BELOW: Calgary Returning Officer says election night issues may lead to changes for 2021
Kennedy said a number of stations contacted them around mid-afternoon for additional ballots and that couriers were sent out to the election office, which is near Deerfoot Trail, around 4 p.m. She said they got caught in rush hour traffic.
She said she was “troubled” by allegations on social media that some voters had received only mayor and trustee ballots when they showed up to vote. But Kennedy said she couldn’t confirm those reports.
Kennedy said as part of her review she would consider potentially switching from hand-counted ballots to using tabulators as in other jurisdictions.
Tabulators can help speed up the election process by allowing individual votes to be tabulated in a machine and then remotely sent to the results centre.
“I would say in a regular election, not one with 58 per cent, we would have been able to handle the capacity,” Kennedy said.
“We have to start planning more for something higher than 58 per cent voter turnout.”
Kennedy also suggested there may be a need to increase the number of voting stations, but added that in new neighbourhoods, the number of locations available to them may be limited.
WATCH BELOW: Calgary wants information on 2017 election night issues
Kennedy said Elections Calgary also experienced delays in reporting results because of the large volume of people checking the site for updates.
Over the entire night, the city’s results website received 3.2 million hits, a sharp uptick from 2013 when 1 million people visited the results website. Between 9 and 10 p.m., the city said its website received 1.5 million hits.
The city said official results will be made available at 12 pm. on Friday.
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