First glitch shows up for cyber vote gŏđŏ
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a way to ensure that it will not be visible within the window envelopes.” Clarence-Rockland is using an electro- nic voting system for the 2014 municipal election, with voters casting their ballots either by phone or by computer through an Internet poll setup. Both the voter ID and the voter PIN are needed for any ballot to register as a valid vote, and the double mail- out is meant to guarantee security for each voter’s ballot. Mayor Marcel Guibord, who was one of the council members who approved the new cyber-vote system, admitted surprise at the problem that appeared with the first mailout. “This was certainly a very odd thing,” he said during a Thanksgiving Mon- day phone interview. The mayor noted that
the double mail-out method should still ensure voter security but he added that a meeting would take place the following Tuesday morning to review the problem. One of the founders of the True Vote lob- by group in Clarence-Rockland expressed no surprise about the mail-out problem. Jacques Taillefer expected some kind of glitch would crop up with the cyber vote process. “I’m not surprised,” Taillefer said during a phone interview. “That’s why we were organizing this (True Vote). The Onta- rio Elections report (on e-voting) warned us about this.” Taillefer noted that city council rushed ahead to approve a changeover from the traditional paper ballot voting system to a cyber vote setup for the 2014 election with-
out giving the True Vote group a chance to finish conducting a petition on the issue and present results of both the petition and its own review of cyber voting to council. “They (council) did a kind of pre-emptive strike against the True Vote movement,” Taillefer said. “Now, I have very uneasy fee- lings. We will all, as a community, have to live with the consequences.” Taillefer expressed concern that the prob- lem with the first voter information letter mail-out won’t be the only glitch in Clar- ence-Rockland’s cyber vote setup. “I’m concerned with the reliability of the system,” he said. “Yes, I am truly wor- ried. True Vote was never for somebody or against someone else. It was for a truly reliable (voting) system.” consortia across the province” because the STEO has developed strategies, policies and guidelines over the past three years that have proven the best in the school bussing industry. The STEO uses 31 contractors with a combined total of 800 vehicles to trans- port 33,450 students, including those with special needs, from both school districts. The STEO deals with 1200 routes within a 12,000 square-kilometre area, and bus fleet averages 120,000 kilometres each day.
GREGGCHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
ROCKLAND | City Hall had to scramble to fix a surprise glitch that showed up for Clarence-Rockland’s new cyber-voting setup for this month’s municipal election. The first mail-out took place of Voter In- formation Letters and some residents who received their letters spotted a problem as soon as they looked at the envelope. Glas- sine envelopes, like those for bills, were used for the mail-outs. These envelopes have a transparent window to allow the mailing address of the bill or letter recipient to show. The problem is that the way the voter in- formation letter was designed and folded, the Voter Identification for some residents is visible through the envelope window instead of staying concealed from acciden- tal discovery. After receiving calls from concerned resi- dents, City Hall issued a press release to lo- cal media and posted it on the city website to reassure local voters that their electronic vote is still protected. “This situation was addressed with the printing company immediately,” the re- lease stated, “and that the second (Voter) Information Letters, which will include the voter’s voting PIN (personal identification number) have been printed and folded in
A made-in-Eastern-Ontario school bus group has scored high marks with the provincial government for safety and ef- ficiency. The Student Transportation of Eastern Ontario consortium (STEO) achieved the highest possible rating from the Ministry of Education for efficient and effective ser- vice. The ministry is point to the STEO as a model for other school bussing systems to emulate. The consortium was created three years $++(ŏ 1/ŏ#.+1,ŏ. 0!/ŏ$%#$ŏ%*ŏ,.+2%* ! ago through a partnership between the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario (CDSBEO) and the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB), merging their individual transportation depart- ments into a single unit to help save costs and also provide efficient and safe trans- port for students. The STEO board has representation from both school districts and a recent ministry review of the consor- tium reported that the resulting operation “could be emulated by other transportation
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