by Connie Tabbert
Editor
COBDEN — It took almost five hours to find out who won the seven council positions for Whitewater Region Township Monday evening.
But, when it was over, there were some definitely clear winners for the positions.
Hal Johnson was elected mayor, Terry Millar was elected reeve and the five councillor positions went to Charlene Jackson, Chris Olmstead, Dave Mackay, Daryl McLaughlin and Cathy Regier. The final two councillors are incumbents.
But, in that five hours, there were many people upset inside the Cobden Ag Hall, wondering why it was taking so long. When deputy-returning officer Steve Hodson announced at 11:30 p.m. it could be at least another hour, the hall pretty much emptied out.
Candidates kept leaving and returning, while some left just never to return.
The shout that went up when Mr. Johnson was announced mayor was loud, but it could have been much louder a few hours earlier. Council-elect members Mr. Johnson, Terry Millar, Charlene Jackson and Cathy Regier remained to give congrats to each other and accept congrats, hugs and handshakes from those who remained. Councillor-elect Daryl McLaughlin was quick to walk out of the hall with wife Debbi at his side while councillor-elect Dave Mackay wasn’t at the ag hall all evening. It was later discovered Mr. Mackay didn’t know there was a gathering happening.
Christine FitzSimons, chief administrative officer for Whitewater, said the report for the electronic votes was ready by 8:15 p.m. However, counting the paper ballots took much longer.
“If one person’s tally sheet had different numbers than the others, we recounted,” she said.
Explaining, Ms. FitzSimons said each ballot box contained no more than 150 ballots. There were two counters per box and each candidate scrutineer were also counting. This means, each ballot was reviewed by several people, she said. After about 30 votes were counted each time, each of those who were keeping track of the votes were asked to say how many votes were tallied, so that everyone was at the same number, she said.
“It was very laborious,” she said. “It’s a long, slow process. When there are a lot of names, there are more scrutineers. We wanted to make sure the results were accurate. Why it took five hours is not the fault of anyone.
“Each scrutineer had to see the ballot and any questions had to be answered,” she said. “It was all open and transparent.”
Ms. FitzSimons said the only change she will make if paper ballots are used again, is to hire more counting staff.
“I thought I had that adequately covered,” she said. “Paper voting is definitely slower in counting. The electronic vote went extremely smoothly. There were no problems whatsoever. The electronic vote has significant advantages.”
In past years, there were always numbers posted as soon as polling stations were counted. However, Ms. FitzSimons prefers to give an accurate number when all are counted. There are two reaons for this, she said. The first is that the counting process would be much slower if she had to stop and report and the second is she is responsible for delivering complete results.
As for voter turnout, it was disappointing that less than 50 per cent of those eligible to vote in Whitewater did so, she said. She was surprised to see that not many more people voted than last year when electronic voting was first introduced. She noted people could sit in the comfort of their homes and pick up the telephone and vote.
“People had every opportunity in this municipality to vote,” Ms. FitzSimons said. “They had a full week of advance voting electronically.”
As for working with a new council, Ms. FitzSimons said staff are optimistic and change is always challenging.
The new council will be sworn in on Dec. 3.
