Queens County voters one step closer to electronic voting option

Queens County voters may get an electronic voting option in October. (Elections Nova Scotia Facebook)

Queens County voters are getting closer to having the option to vote online or by phone in this October’s municipal election.

Councillors asked CAO Cody Joudry in January to prepare a report on the feasibility and costs of introducing electronic voting to Queens, while keeping the traditional paper ballot.

Twenty of 49 Nova Scotia municipalities offered an electronic voting option in 2020. Elections Nova Scotia used electronic ballots in the July byelection in Preston. And it plans to allow e-voting in the 2025 provincial election.

Joudry says in a report to council this week that more than 40 municipalities are expected to offer electronic voting as an option this year.

Joudry recommends that councillors vote to keep the traditional paper ballot, while also introducing online and telephone voting. Joudry estimates that adding an e-ballot option would cost an extra $20,000, for a total of $70,000.

Joudry also recommended that Ian Kent be appointed the new returning officer for the municipal election. Kent was recently hired by Elections Nova Scotia to replace Ted Bulley as the provincial returning officer for Queens, after Bulley’s retirement. The province’s returning officer has traditionally performed the same role in municipal elections.