HomeMy WebLinkAboutCD-61-96 REPORT #3
THE CORP INGTON
T
REPORT
Meeting: COUNCIL
File#
Date: DECEMBER 9, 1996 Res. #L--f
Report#: CD-61-96 File#: By-Law#
Subject: MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS - PURCHASE OF AUTOMATIC VOTE TABULATORS
Recommendations:
It is respectfully recommended:
1 . THAT Report CD-61-96 be received;
2. THAT the purchase of automatic vote tabulators from Global Election Systems,
Inc. at a cost of $85,685.00 be approved;
3. THAT the requirements of the Purchasing By-law 94-129, Section 5.06 be
waived for this purchase; and
4. THAT, in accordance with the provisions of the Municipal Elections Act, a by-
law authorizing the use of optical scanning vote tabulators at municipal
elections for the purposes of voting and counting votes be passed and a copy
of the by-law be forwarded to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
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Report CD-61-96 Page 2
BACKGROUND AND COMMENT:
As Council is aware, the Clerk's Department has been reviewing methods of
speeding up the returns in the municipal elections. In recent elections, the final
results have taken up to four or five hours to tabulate following the close of the polls,
due to the manual count system currently used by the Municipality. Because of the
number of offices, the number of candidates for the various offices and the
multiplicity of forms and procedures required under the Municipal Elections Act, it is
extremely difficult to have election results any sooner. The only solution is to
automate the vote tabulating process.
Automated vote tabulation equipment has been in use in Ontario for many years and
there are a number of different systems that have been approved by the Province,
which essentially fall into two different categories--punch cards and optical scanners.
The punch card system is the older of the two systems. With this system, the ballot
is slipped into a special holder that lists the offices and the candidates. The
candidates' names do not appear on the ballot. The elector, using a stylus, punches
the stylus into the hole opposite the candidate of his/her choice. The ballot is
punched by this procedure. At the close of the poll, the ballots are transported to a
central count area where they are removed from the ballot box and fed into an
automatic vote tabulator. Over the years, the punch card system has fallen out of
favour with most election administrators due to problems encountered with accuracy
of the counting system caused when chafe remains attached to the ballot after the
ballot is punched. Also, as the candidate's name is not printed on the ballot,
reconstructing the election for purposes of a recount becomes difficult.
Optical scanner systems involve the elector marking the ballot with a black marker
much in the same manner as they do now. The ballot is then fed into the tabulating
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Report CD-61-96 Page 3
unit, either at the polling place or a central tabulating area, and the votes are
immediately counted. A tape is produced with the final election results. The optical
scanner systems currently available fall into one of two categories--either a poll count
system or a central count system. The poll count system tabulates the votes at the
polling place when the poll closes. The DRO simply presses a couple of buttons and
a tape is produced with the final results. These results are then transmitted to
election central either by telephone or modem. Final election results are Report
generally known and posted within 20 or 30 minutes after the close of the polls. The
central count system requires the election personnel to transport the ballots to a
central tabulating centre where they are run through a machine and counted. The
central count system takes somewhat longer than the poll county system to produce
the final election results.
Until recently, the purchase of automatic vote tabulating equipment has been too
expensive for most Ontario municipalities to even consider. It has been difficult to
justify the purchase when the equipment is used only once every three years. As
municipal elections are run every year in the United States, most companies in the
automatic vote tabulating business are U.S. based. American municipalities can
more readily justify the equipment purchase based on the frequency of its use.
Global Election Systems, Inc., a Canadian company based in Vancouver, with offices
in Toronto and Albuquerque, New Mexico, offers a unique proposal to address the
Ontario and Canadian situations. Local municipalities in British Columbia, Alberta
and Ontario elect their councils in different calendar years. Global Election Systems,
Inc., has therefore devised a partnership plan between municipalities in different
provinces. The way this partnership works is that the Municipality of Clarington
would acquire half of the automatic vote tabulators required for its election purposes
and Global Election Systems, Inc., would then provide a partner of a similar size in
another Province. Each partner loans the other their voting equipment for the once
every three year municipal elections. The municipalities are guaranteed that the
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Report CD-61-96 Page 4
required number of vote tabulators necessary to conduct the election will be
available. Between elections, each municipality retains its own equipment for use in
by-elections, public opinion polls, etc. This plan cuts equipment costs in half.
The system Global Election Systems, Inc., markets is the Election System 2000 (ES-
2000) optical scan voting system, which is a complete voting system featuring
management control of the voting process from ballot preparation to verification of
results.
The system embodies three voting system characteristics that are of paramount
importance to election administrators, ie:
• the candidate's name appears on the ballot
• the ballots are counted at the polling place producing poll level results and not
transported to a central location for tabulation
• provides the user with a clear and distinct audit trail
Other advantages of the ES-2000 system include:
• Accuracy - Using paper ballots, the Accu-Vote tabulates permanent, physical
records of each elector's votes or choices. This permanent, physical record of
a cast ballot not only assures voting system integrity, but facilitates the total
reconstruction of an election for recount purposes.
• Security - The system features management control over all facets of the
election administrative process from ballot layout to certification of the final
official results. This environment is created through a user defined
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Report CD-61-96 Page 5
combination of passwords, security levels and physical lock outs.
• Transportability - Compact and lightweight, the automatic vote tabulators can
be easily transported to and from the polling places.
• User Friendly - Poll workers can master the Accu-Vote with minimal training
and they do not need to have any prior computer experience to conduct an
election. Following a two hour training session, the poll workers will be able to
set up and conduct an election with confidence.
• Voter Acceptability - Voters mark their ballots exactly as they would a paper
ballot, that is by indicating their preference in the space beside the candidate
and/or issue response of their choice. The name-on-ballot technique allows a
voter to review his or her final selections before the ballot is tabulated. The
system is easy for voters to use.
• Cost Effectiveness - After the initial capital equipment expenditure, elections
are less expensive to run. The system can accommodate significantly more
electors per poll resulting in reduced election expenses because of a
significant reduction in the number of polling places, election personnel, forms
and supplies.
• Speed - The system can read one ballot in less than half a second. Election
results are almost immediate and the results posted on election night are the
final results.
• Modem Capability - Once the polls have closed, election results-from each
polling place are instantaneously transmitted over a standard telephone line to
the election central computer by modem. This feature eliminates the possibility
of key punch error when entering the results on the main computer system.
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Report CD-61-96 Page 6
• Ballot Analysis - This feature can greatly reduce the number of rejected ballots.
The system will detect 'over-voting" and "blank ballots" and will reject same. If,
in the example of an 'over-voted" ballot where an elector was supposed to vote
for three school trustees and actually voted for four, the system can be
programmed to return the ballot the elector and a small LCD (liquid crystal
display) readout on the automatic vote tabulator will indicate an 'over-vote" in a
particular race. The manner in which the ballot is rejected from the tabulator
still ensures the confidentiality of the vote, but gives the elector an opportunity
to receive a new ballot. If the elector chooses not to accept a new ballot, the
election official at the polling place can override the 'over-vote" feature and the
tabulator will accept the ballot, count the votes that have been correctly
marked and not count the votes for the over counted office. The tabulator
keeps track of any such ballots and these are shown on the print out at the
close of the poll.
• Poll Definition - The software for the ES-2000 system allows for the definition of
ward and poll information during ballot preparation, thereby making one
tabulator capable of reading different ballots from different wards and polls and
maintaining separate counts for each. Only one automatic vote tabulator in
each polling place is required. The one machine is capable of counting all the
types of ballots and tabulating the results quickly and accurately.
MUNICIPAL IMPACT:
With the present system of manual count, the Municipal Elections Act limits the
Municipality to polls of no more than 500 electors. In reality, the number of electors
is limited to approximately 200 to 250 per poll to expedite the vote tabulation. Under
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Report CD-61-96 Page 7
an automated system, there is no limit of electors. In order to avoid line ups at the
poll and alleviate parking problems at the polling places, it is suggested that polls
would be limited to approximately 1000 electors. Some Ontario municipalities using
automatic systems have polling subdivisions of upwards of 3000 electors with no
difficulty.
Based on the 1994 statistics, we would be able to reduce the number of polls in the
Municipality from 118 to 45 (approximately) using an automated voting system. The
number of polling places could be reduced from 30 to 18. Accordingly, the number
of election personnel could be reduced by approximately 50 percent from the current
250 level. While some electors may have a greater distance to travel to their polling
place, significant cost savings would be realized by reducing the number of polls,
polling places and election personnel through the use of an automated voting
system.
During the 1994 municipal elections, the Town of Ajax used the ES-2000 optical scan
voting system. The first poll reported in at 8:04 p.m. and the final results were in at
8:20 p.m. Election operating costs were reduced by 60 percent using the automatic
vote tabulator.
The Town of Whitby has approved a recommendation of the Clerk to purchase the
equipment for the 1997 municipal elections and the Town of Pickering is currently
considering the equipment acquisition also.
PROPOSED COSTS:
The one-time cost for purchasing ten automatic vote tabulators and having the use of
ten additional tabulators under Global's partnership sharing program is $85,685.00.
Report CD-61-96 Page 8
The annual maintenance fee which includes any and all system modifications and
upgrades and software system service and support is $1,145.00. A detailed cost
breakdown is included in Attachment No. 1 .
Based on 1994 election budget figures, the following is a comparison of operating
costs related to the automatic voting system and the manual count system:
Description Manual Count Automatic Voting
(Approximate Values)
Staffing Costs $39,888 $25,000
Operating Supplies 14,708 8,000
Hall Rentals 5,436 3,000
TOTAL $60,032 $36,000
TOTAL COST SAVING
(Approximate) $24,032
Although the initial capital investment is significant, it is quickly offset by costs
savings. Global Election Systems, Inc., advises that the pay back period for
converting from a manual count system to an automated vote tabulating process
would be three elections (earlier if there were any by-elections). It is therefore
recommended that Council approve the purchase of automatic vote tabulators from
Global Elections Systems, Inc., at a cost of $85,685.
Respectfully submitted, Reviewed by,
_/ ter
Fatti L. a ie, A. C.T. W.H. Stockwell
C - Chief Administrative Officer
Enc.
409
ATTACHMENT NO. 1 TO REPORT CD-61-96
PARTNERSHIP PURCHASE PROGRAM
Quantity Description Cost Total
10 Accu-Vote Tabulators - Accu-Vote $6,995 $69,950
carrying case, Memory card, instruction
manual, ballot container
13 Accu-Vote Memory Cards 195 2,535
1 Vote Tabulator System Software Package 11 ,950
1 Starter Kit 750
TOTAL $85,185
COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS
1 486/33 mhz PC with 16 megabytes of
RAM
Large hard drive - VTS requires 150
megs, the balance to be partitioned with
Window, etc.
4 serial ports with 2400 baud modems, 3 $ 500
for receiving Accu-Vote Candidate
transmissions, 1 to transmit from VTS to
Election Display Area
1 Laser Printer with Postscript capabilities
to create election, proof ballots and print
Election Reports
TOTAL $ 500
GRAND TOTAL $85,685
ANNUAL MAINTENANCE FEES
10 To maintain Accu-Vote - To include any $ 65 $ 650
and all modifications and PROM
upgrades, as well as any service
requirements
1 Service and support for VTS software $ 495 495
system
TOTAL
i
410