More Mail-in Misgivings

Much has been written about our mail-in ballot system, in local papers, blogs, letters to the editor. Candidates have been ridiculed (as have their scrutineers) for wanting to watch the process closely, to identify problems so that they may be corrected or improved upon before the next election. Having these scrutineers at Town Hall is a good thing (thanks Martha).

"Clarington's ballot problem relatively minimal, says ministry spokesman" - Some areas much higher - so reads the headline today for the Clarington Metroland on-line paper. I guess that makes it okay, since our rate of rejected ballots is smaller than some other municipalities? A rate of 3 to 4% seems to be acceptable to the municipality and to the ministry, but remember that there will almost certainly be many more when ballots are actually counted as there will be spoiled ones. How high will that raise the rejected ballot total?

"An array of issues led to the rejections including failure to sign or include the voter declaration and placing the voter declaration inside the secrecy envelope."

Failure to sign or include the voter declaration - fine. I can see that being a problem. But I'd like to know how they know that the voter declaration was placed inside the secrecy envelope? Don't you have to open that envelope to know that? I thought those secrecy envelopes couldn't be opened until the polls officially close at 8 pm on November 13.

"Some municipalities are making efforts to lower the rejection number using methods such as opening the end of the secrecy envelope to see if the declaration form has been included there, said the Ministry spokesman. Others are calling people who neglected to sign the declaration, to help increase the number of accepted ballots."

Again, I thought the secrecy envelope HAD to remain sealed until polls close. Is this actually permissible? What happened to the "secrecy" part of that equation? Wouldn't/shouldn't an unsealed secrecy envelope not conform to protocol and therefore once again be grounds for not being accepted? And wouldn't a "secrecy envelope" that had been opened already be more susceptible to fraud? What is the difference between "opening the end of the secrecy envelope" and opening it at the flap? In either case the contents can be taken out, viewed, corrected (?), replaced within the envelope to be counted days later when polls close. What happens with those envelopes - are they taped up after being opened so that ballots don't fall out? Is premature opening of these ballots legally allowed???

We have been critical of this mail-in ballot method of voting since 2000. There are still "issues" with it and people have a right to be concerned, especially the candidates.

There are plenty of other problems as well, including non-delivery of voting kits to voters, delivery to the wrong address, no verification of the signatures on the voter declaration form. Anyone could have extra votes if they picked up discarded voter kits from apartment lobbies, blue boxes, etc. Just sign that form because there is no verification on it other than the signature. Anyone who knows how to write can sign a name, and the voter's name is printed on the form itself so you know who's name to sign.

Voter turnout doesn't seem to be much heavier than it was in the last election, when we had all those acclamations and very few (seriously) contested seats. With the very large number of candidates in this election and the voter anger over a number of issues, you would think there would be a huge voter turnout this year. But so far (even though there are a few days left) it doesn't seem to have increased much, if at all. Hopefully there will be a large surge on Election Day of voters who choose to deliver their ballots in person. Or maybe there are a lot of voters who have decided, "What's the point"? Our Council doesn't seem to listen to us, there is never any "debate", and everything seems to have been decided before Council meetings even take place. Will new councillors show any more backbone in standing up to an intense, hard-ball Mayor? Will we have a new Mayor? We can hope for the best in this election. The call for "change" has gone out. It remains to be seen whether voters have heeded the call.

Every vote is important and must be counted. But for any municipality to open the secrecy envelope prior to election day is just plain wrong. And if they're not doing that, how do they know the voter declaration form is inside the secrecy envelope instead of in the outer, yellow envelope?

We are interested only in the integrity of the election process. But some of the statements made bring cause for worry. The chance for mail-in mishap is too great at the present time for our liking. Yes, we have voted, but we are not confident everyone's ballot will be able to be counted, or that some unscrupulous people have not had the opportunity to vote multiple times. It's the system, not the municipality we are criticizing. At least it is good to see that some of our concerns are being publicized this time around and are being taken seriously.