Allowance of Automated Vote Counting Systems in Municipal Elections
IT IS THEREFORE RESOLVED THAT Alberta Municipalities advocate to the Government of Alberta to permit municipalities to utilize the vote counting system of their choice in the operation of their local elections, including automated vote counting systems, to ensure accurate, cost-effective and timely results for Albertan voters.
WHEREAS the timely, accurate and efficient operation of municipal elections is essential to uphold the principles of democratic integrity and effective local government; WHEREAS municipalities across Alberta have historically employed a variety of vote counting methods, ranging from manual counting of ballots to the use of automated vote counting systems that count paper ballots, that best enable them to facilitate local elections based on the unique demographics and structure of their municipality;
WHEREAS the Government of Alberta’s Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 repeals the section of the Local Authorities Election Act that enables the use of automated vote counting systems, necessitating that municipalities solely employ the manual counting of ballots in future local elections, thereby running counter to the core principle of enabling local decision-making;
WHEREAS a municipal electoral ballot can contain many different votes, including a vote for mayor, multiple councillors, school board trustees, senate candidate nominations, and referendum or plebiscite questions, the complexity of which can both increase the risk of human error and the time required to complete a manual count;
WHEREAS municipalities have utilized automated vote counting systems at their discretion to effectively mitigate the complexity and time required to count ballots in order to produce accurate, reliable and timely election results;
WHEREAS the previous Local Authorities Election Act and current municipal bylaws include stringent, effective and tested regulations for the use of automated vote counting systems, in addition to the allowance of manual re-counts, which have ensured fair, accurate and authentic local elections for many election cycles;
WHEREAS the requirement of manual ballot counting will impose a financial burden on municipalities that have previously relied on automated vote counting systems, limit the ability to provide accurate, timely and reliable results, and increase the risk of delayed results and errors; and
WHEREAS some municipalities have not utilized manual vote counting in years or decades and would therefore incur significant risk in adapting alternative vote counting processes without precedent or corporate expertise, thereby increasing the likelihood of delayed results, errors, and cost escalation.
On April 25th, 2024, the Government of Alberta tabled Bill 20, the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, which makes substantive changes to the Local Authorities Election Act (LAEA). The bill repealed section 84 of the LAEA, which stated:
84(1). An elected authority may by bylaw provide for the taking of the votes of electors by means of voting machines, vote recorders or automated voting systems.
Further stipulations within this section referenced the allowance of electronic voting tabulators and included stringent requirements and regulations for the use of such equipment.
Bill 20 replaced this section with the following:
84. A local jurisdiction shall not provide for the taking or counting of votes by means of voting machines, vote recorders, automated voting systems or tabulators.
Many municipalities have used automated vote counting systems – such as electronic tabulators– over a large number of election cycles. These systems typically involve a voter filling out a paper ballot, which is then deposited in an electronic tabulator that records their votes; the technology utilized is similar to “scantron” automated test scoring systems that are used for educational exams in schools and post-secondary institutions across Alberta. Once a paper ballot’s votes have been recorded by the electronic tabulator, the paper ballot remains accessible should any errors or close results necessitate a manual re-count of the ballots.
The use of such systems allows for the effective and timely counting of ballots, some of which can contain over a dozen different individual votes, including votes for mayor, multiple councillors, school board trustees, senate nominees, provincial referendums, and local plebiscites. For example, in the City of St. Albert’s 2021 election, over 17,500 individual ballots were cast, with each ballot containing 7 separate votes, and 17 candidates elected or referendum questions answered out of over 50 options. Similar complex ballot dynamics exist among many municipalities in Alberta.
The previous LAEA enabled the use of automated vote counting systems at a municipality’s discretion, and also placed regulatory stipulations and requirements for their use; municipalities that utilized the equipment often included stricter stipulations for its use within their own election-regulating bylaws. The City of St. Albert’s Municipal Elections Bylaw 20/2017, for example, includes the following regulations:
- Requirements that the automated vote counting system has been tested, is in good working order and will provide accurate results;
- Requirements that the integrity of the automated vote counting system is protected through security measures designed to prevent unauthorized access or tampering of the system;
- Regulations for contingencies should an automated vote counting system malfunction.
Automated vote counting systems also allow for increased reliability and voter confidence in the use of complex ballots. For example, the City of St. Albert’s local election processes enable a voter to place their own marked paper ballot in an electronic tabulator; should the tabulator identify an error on the ballot, the voter will be given an opportunity to request a new ballot, ensuring that their votes are counted. Such contingencies and allowances would not be possible with a manual count, which would necessitate a degree of subjectivity to interpret unclear or improperly marked ballots and thus increase the risk of votes not being counted and vote counting errors.
Municipalities that utilize automated vote counting equipment have also invested notable resources in their operation and regulation; for example, the City of St. Albert regulates the use of electronic tabulators in its Municipal Elections Bylaw (1)
(1) City of St. Albert – Municipal Elections Bylaw 20/2017 https://stalbert.ca/site/assets/files/30875/consolidated_municipal_elections_-_by_bylaw_25-_2023.pdf
and signed a contract with a value of $55,000 to utilize 31 tabulators in its most recent election. The requirement to utilize manual vote counting will require a broad overhaul of municipal bylaws that regulate elections in municipalities that have utilized automated vote counting systems and will necessitate the design and operation of new vote counting processes in addition to the contracting and/or training of vote counting personnel. Collectively, this will impose financial burdens on affected municipalities due to the resources required to enact an overhaul of this scale to design and employ a new electoral process.
Furthermore, the lack of recent precedence on the utilization of manual vote counting in addition to the lack of corporate knowledge will increase the risk of delay, errors and other related issues for municipalities that have not recently utilized manual vote counting to tabulate complex ballots, which could negatively impact the ability for municipalities to provide timely, effective, and efficient elections. Such delays and errors could undermine the trust of residents in their local government’s ability to uphold the principles of democratic integrity and effective local government.
Allowing municipalities to employ the vote counting system of their choice and design – whether through a manual count or the use of electronic tabulating equipment – will ensure that they can provide reliable, accurate, and timely elections for their residents, and will maintain the tradition of trust in the municipal electoral process that has been held by Albertans for generations. Furthermore, the autonomy to make a decision such as this is best suited to occur locally, amongst those who know and understand their communities the greatest.
When the Government of Alberta introduced Bill 20, the Municipal Affairs Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 during the spring 2024 legislative session, Alberta Municipalities highlighted concerns with the removal of electronic tabulators amongst other concerns with Bill 20. The Government of Alberta has stated that the intent of removing the use of voting machines and tabulators is to increase trust in local election processes. If this resolution is approved, it would be forwarded to the Government of Alberta for response. Further advocacy would be recommended to the ABmunis’ Board by the Municipal Governance Committee within the context of related priorities and positions.