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Vancouver’s chief election officer talks jammed ballot machines, long lineups

Rosemary Hagiwara says full report on the Oct. 20 election will go to new council next spring
rosemary
The city's chief election officer Rosemary Hagiwara (middle) spoke to the Courier this week about what worked, what didn't in Oct. 20 civic election. Photo Dan Toulgoet

Jammed ballot machines, long lineups to vote and results coming in well after midnight—those were some of the frustrations and complaints heard by the city’s chief election officer as the Oct.20 civic election came to a furious end almost two weeks ago.

Rosemary Hagiwara said her team is still reviewing what worked, what didn’t and what can be added for the 2022 election. But, overall, she said the election went “fairly well” and she was pleased with the addition of the mobile voting stations at homeless shelters and drop-in centres in the Downtown Eastside and throughout downtown.

“We heard some emotional stories from the voters,” she said. “So that was really heartwarming for us. Some voted for the first time and some felt they would be voting for the last time, which was really sad. The feedback we got from the voters really reinforced our decision to do this.”

The mobile stations were in response to complaints registered in the 2014 election when residents of the Downtown Eastside and Strathcona had only two facilities open on voting day to cast a ballot — the Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings, and Britannia Community Centre near Commercial Drive.

Hagiwara said her team is tabulating how many people took advantage of the mobile stations and those statistics will be included in a report that goes before the new city council next spring. That report will include many other details of the election, some of which she responded to in a 20-minute telephone interview earlier this week.

Her responses have been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.

What were some of the challenges with this election?

The long ballot [with 158 candidates’ names in random order]. We plan the election 18 months out, but not knowing what the actual ballot is going to look like is challenging. As you probably heard, long ballots were causing paper jams on election day. Having to scan 40 more names on the ballot took longer than 2014. Also, some locations had lineups, but over 50 per cent didn’t. So on social media, on general voting day, we were advertising which locations didn’t have lineups. We heard back from some voters who said that really helped.

You mentioned the lineups, even with the addition this election of two tabulators each at 22 locations. Could the city have done something more to alleviate the lineups?

I don’t think that’s completely possible. Advance voting days, for example, the turnout was good but the second to the sixth day, the numbers were quite low. We were quite disappointed with that. But then the numbers picked up again when we had an advertising blitz to encourage people to vote in advance. So the last three days were busy. We were happy with the numbers and, actually, the advance turnout numbers were higher than in 2014. Even though we encourage people to pre-plan when and where they will vote, there’s still going to be lineups. We give lots of opportunities to vote at other locations. In some locations where they experience lineups, we placed markers letting people know how long the wait would be, and provided them with three other locations in the area.

Voter turnout was 39.4 per cent in this election, which was lower than the 2014 election. You had eight consecutive advance voting days this year, had voting tools on the city’s website and did a lot of outreach. Is there anything more the city can do to improve turnout?

There’s only so many things we can do to encourage voters to come out.  What we can control is to improve access—having more voting days, making it easier like in 2014 where we allowed people to vote anywhere. That was really a huge change for us. But research has shown that voters are more likely to vote if they see the race as competitive, or a key issue is at stake, or whether there are exciting candidates in the race. So that can potentially affect the turnout. The limits on campaign finance [which banned union and corporate donations this year] likely had an impact on it.

I heard from voters who said there were problems with some of the tabulator machines, and that they were jamming. What can you say about that?

I know 57 locations reported that, and I know some other locations experienced that but they managed to clear the jams. The ballot was longer than previous years, so the paper doesn’t fall nicely into the ballot box. They were curling up. So we had to ensure they were falling properly into the box to avoid the jams. But one of our 'super centres' [equipped with two tabulators, instead of one] had over 2,000 ballots cast. They had two tabulators going and they had no problems at all.

Why did it take until well after midnight to tabulate the results?

We had a couple locations that came in later than the others. If there’s a lineup before the polls close at eight o’clock, we would let those voters vote even though it was past eight o’clock. As long as they’re in the lineup already, they’re entitled to vote. Some of those locations had lineups, and didn’t close the polls until at least half an hour later. Once everybody has voted, the staff has to clean up, do a takedown and secure supplies. So it does take time to pack the ballots and load into the vehicle. And they’re all coming into city hall.

So all the tabulator machines have to be transported back to city hall?

That’s right. The tabulators are all sealed and they bring them back to city hall, and our team will unseal them to remove the memory cards for the results.

Some people on social media have criticized the nomination system for candidates, saying it should cost more than a $100 deposit to run for mayor, council, park board and school board. The critics say some of the candidates in this election made a mockery of the election and had no hope in getting elected, let alone garnering 1,000 votes. What do you say to that?

You need to consider the people who may not be able to afford that amount, either. So you have to strike a balance here. As long as they meet the eligibility, they’re allowed to run for office. And those requirements are set in the Vancouver Charter. The fee, itself is in the bylaw, so if council wished to increase that nomination deposit, then they certainly could request staff to bring forward a bylaw amendment. It’s easier to change a bylaw than the Vancouver Charter.

How much did the election cost?

We’re still putting all the costs together. Last October’s  byelection was just over $1 million. This election will probably be four times that amount.

What changes do you anticipate the city will implement for the 2022 election?

[Laughs] Let me breathe first. It’s hard to say. We still have to have our debrief. I call the election a project, and with each project there are things that you learn. And each one we can always improve on. I think I can see us expanding on the super centres [having two tabulators per voting location].

At the outgoing council’s last meeting Tuesday, they thanked you and your team for your work. So do you get a break now?

No, not for a while yet. We have the inauguration next Monday. The incoming council will have a very busy month with briefings to get them ready to start work. Part of those briefings will give them an idea how the city is set up. A lot of them are brand new to the City of Vancouver, and they have no idea who does what. Hopefully after that, they’ll be some rest time for us.

mhowell@vancourier.com

@Howellings