Electronic voting machines to be used for Ontario Elections

For the first time in a provincial election in Ontario, voters will use electronic voting machines when they head to the polls on June 7. The voters’ paper lists will also be a thing of past in most ridings, replaced by an electronic version called e-Poll Book. Elections Ontario has said that the new technology should help speed up both the voting and ballot-counting process. When voters show up at a polling station, a machine will scan their notice of registration card. Then the voters will receive their ballot from an official, fill it out and hand it back to the official who will put it through the tabulating machine. A spokeswoman for Elections Ontario says the new technology was tested at two byelections in 2016, and was also used in a variety of municipal elections.

In the Feb. 11, 2016 byelection in the Whitby-Oshawa riding, it took only 30 minutes to count the ballots using the new machines, compared to the 90 minutes it took officials to count them by hand, according to an Elections Ontario report that examined the byelection. The report also said the new technology would help with another election issue: staffing.