If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
That’s the philosophy the Municipality of Chester is adopting.
They’ll continue to use electronic voting for advanced polls in the 2016 municipal election.
Seventy-three per cent of residents voted using phone or web in 2012.
Warden Allen Webber says it should help increase voter turnout.
“We’ve all seen voter turnout, particularly at the municipal level, drop to really unacceptable levels. Anything we can do to increase voter turnout, we should be attempting.”
Fourteen Nova Scotia municipalities used e-voting in 2012, four more than 2008.
The service cost about $35,000 during the last municipal election.
Meanwhile, it was not a unanimous decision.
Councillor Bob Myra and Deputy Warden Floyd Shatford wanted to stick to more traditional methods, like paper ballot.
Shatford likes the idea of higher voter turnout but feels there is too much risk.
“I believe the opportunities for fraud over-weighs that, in my opinion. I look at federally and provincially, they don’t do it for those reasons.”
There were a small number of voter cards sent to wrong addresses in the HRM in 2012.
However, no cases of fraud were revealed during or after the election.
