Kitchener to reprint 19,500 ballots, will cost $25,000

The city of Kitchener is having 19,500 election ballots reprinted in order to add Ward 2 candidate Regan Brusse’s middle name Sunshine to the ballots.

The move to add Brusse’s middle name to the ballots will cost $25,000, which includes the cost of printing new cards plus changing the memory cards in the tabulation machines.

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“I understand this has cost the city and only wish this could have been addressed sooner, to avoid such cost,” Brusse said in a statement on her website. “I have had no control over the cost, nor the initial decision. I have incurred financial costs myself to address this matter.”

Brusse sued the city to have her middle name included on the ballots. A decision would not be rendered in the case until Oct. 3, just a week before advanced polls open.

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In a release, the city says that if it were to lose the case, it would not have time to reprint the ballots.

Brusse is running in Ward 2 against incumbent Dave Schnider, Fitz Vanderpool and Suresh Arangath.