Majority of Council shuns online voting, sticks with in-person paper ballots

by Greg Layson

Essex Town Council voted to keep municipal voting status quo Monday night.

  After 45-minutes of debate and discussion surrounding online voting, including a hybrid method of internet voting, things will remain the same for the next municipal election, which takes place on October 26, 2026.

  Essex Director of Legal and Legislative Services/Clerk, Joseph Malandruccolo, gave Councillors two voting options.

  The first was a hybrid method using an online voting platform with in-person voting only. It’s similar to the paper method, except paper ballots are eliminated and residents vote on an internet-connected tablet, which returns results more quickly.

  The second option was to move to fully online voting with voter assistance centres, a method that would provide voters a personal identification number and cast ballots from an internet-connected device, including their home computers.

  But neither seemed to satisfy the vast majority of Councillors, who rejected both methods by a count of 5-2 in a recorded vote.

  Council instead chose to support Councillor Joe Garon’s motion to keep paper ballots.

  “We never really had a problem to fix,” Garon said. “It comes down to voter turnout. I want more voter turnout. Whatever way we choose, I don’t care. As long as we get more voter turnout.”

  Mayor Sherry Bondy said she’s not convinced there’s “a direct correlation” between online voting and higher voter turnout. She voted with Garon.

  "Even if all of us around this table believe that [the] online method is foolproof, the public perception is that it’s not,” she said. “I’m voting with the public. Our residents haven’t had enough time to digest this.”

  Several members of Council said they have heard strong opposition to online voting. 

  Bondy said local public opinion might be swayed by the influence of U.S. media, where there have been concerns raised of what some have questioned as potential “voter fraud” and the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election being “stolen” by malfunctioning voting machines. 

  “We’re a border area. Our residents don’t trust the election process. I think [our system] works the way it is,” Bondy said. “I would be up to looking at [it] for the [2030] election. We need to have more time to explain it to the residents. 

  “Even if I think it’s foolproof, our residents don’t.”

  Historically, the Town of Essex has used both in-person and vote by mail voting methods Malandruccolo said that 82% of Ontario’s municipalities use some sort of online voting, run mostly by two tech companies, although he didn’t name them.

  But, even he said trust is an issue.

  “There isn’t enough trust yet in some sort of fully online voting method,” he said. “The trust is probably not there yet.”

  Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley was one of two Council reps — with Councillor Katie McGuire-Blais the other — who voted against the motion. He was in favour of a hybrid system.

  “You’re still voting in-person,” he said. “I paid my credit card on my laptop before this meeting. I have full faith in online in everything I do in life. There is so much security and what we’re talking about is somebody coming into an election centre and voting on a computer. It’s the same. I’m frustrated by this and I’m not usually frustrated.”

  After the meeting, he relayed to the Essex Free Press that it is important people realize what was voted on was regarding in-person tabulated voting.  The other option was an in-person computer vote. Either option needed a computer to tabulate votes. He believes what everyone wanted was in-person counting.

  Youth Councillor Cole Foster said online voting is the future and Essex needs to get on board.

  “The jump’s going to have to be made eventually. The trust just isn’t going to magically appear,” he said. “If we go to a digital method now, we’re embracing the future. Why would we risk falling behind? Take the initiative now.”