LETTER: Local elections need to be successful and sustainable

GuelphToday received the following letter, also sent to members of council, from Phil Andrews regarding a city staff report that said the last municipal election process was a success, but unsustainable.

Dear editor,

This is a copy of a letter also sent this month to members of Guelph City Council and to the City of Guelph.

The City of Guelph staff's election report – reviewed by council on Tuesday, March 7 – offers as a key finding: "It was a success."

Perhaps.

I would urge council, the municipality and the local school boards to use voter turnout and errors noted at polling stations as among other key metrics to consider in appraising the success of an election process.

The report cites concerns about staff capacity to support the election process. In fact, it regards the staffing processes that supported this vote as "unsustainable." That should really be a flag for our elected officials and bureaucratic leaders. 

Guelph boasts about being progressive – often quite fairly. For what it's worth, I noted other municipalities and local civic organizations that were much more effective and creative in educating and engaging electors prior to the last election. Some, such as Grey Highlands, were considerably smaller than Guelph as well.

Before we accept the last election as "a success," I hope there is a political investment to assert that the next one needs to be even more successful.

I truly hope this comes from school board officials too. I find the absence of input from school boards in this report to be off-putting as well.

I'm pleased to see the shift to Elections Ontario as the source for voter lists. That will eliminate a lot of errors that created barriers for voters and or which marred the voting process. (For example, I'm aware of multiple electors who received the incorrect school board ballot. I liaised with the clerk's office on this point and the assumption is that the voter data was a lead cause for this.)

I implore Council to give greater consideration to how a next civic and school board election might be more successful. As a taxpayer, I would be very open to making much more significant investment to see enhanced efforts to support this process.

Yours truly,
Phil Andrews