Corporate Report. That Council not approve the use of ranked ballots for the 2018 Municipal and School Board Election; and

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1 Corporate Report Report from Legal and Clerks Services, Office of the City Clerk Date of Report: February 14, 2017 Date of Meeting: March 6, 2017 Report Number: LCS File: Subject: Ranked Balloting Option 2018 Municipal and School Board Election Recommendation That Council receive Report LCS Ranked Balloting Option 2018 Municipal and School Board Election for information; and That Council not approve the use of ranked ballots for the 2018 Municipal and School Board Election; and That Council direct the City Clerk to monitor ranked ballot elections in Ontario and report back to Council with a comprehensive report following the 2018 Municipal and School Board Election. FORTHWITH Summary The purpose of this report is to provide Council with information regarding the Ranked Ballot option for the 2018 Municipal and School Board Election for consideration. Background Council received report LCS , Municipal Election Modernization Act, on January 30, The report provided information about the changes to the Municipal Elections Act, (MEA), as prescribed within Bill 181; the Municipal Elections Modernization Act, 2016, (MEMA). On June 9, 2016, Bill 181 MEMA received Royal Assent. The passing of the MEMA represents the most comprehensive changes that the MEA has had in several years. As discussed within the previous report, the most significant change was the ranked balloting option and it was staff s decision to separate this change and to return with more information focused on this option for voters in St. Catharines. Report Page 1 of 4

2 Report Up to 2014, municipalities used first-past-the-post, whereby the candidate receiving the highest number of votes is elected. The ranked ballot voting option, takes into consideration an electors top three (or more) choices. If Council wishes to have the electors choose four or five of their top choices, then a by-law is passed to confirm their decision otherwise the default number stays at the top three choices. In the first round of counting, a winner is declared if they receive over 50 percent of the votes. If no candidate receives over 50 percent, the contender with the fewest votes is eliminated from the ballot and his or her supporter s second choices are added to the remaining totals, and the votes are recounted. This process repeats itself as many times as is necessary until a candidate emerges with a majority. Attached as Appendix 1 is an illustrated example. At this time, the pros and cons of ranked ballots are subjective and some of the information gleaned from the available literature and other municipalities reports are being presented here for Council s review and consideration. Pros The following are reasons cited from for municipalities to consider this option for 2018: Ranked ballots ensure that a candidate has more than 50 percent of support from the electorate thereby ensuring the candidate with the broadest level of support is elected. The general opinion in the literature suggests that this type of voting reduces the need for strategic voting thus reducing or even eliminating negative campaigning. Further there is a sense that this style of electing would encourage candidates to remain in the race until Election Day. For example, voters may follow their hearts and rank less known candidates first without fear they are wasting their votes. It may compel candidates to try to expand their appeal to attract the second choice support. There are suggestions that this style of voting brings out a diverse group of candidates, for example women who are traditionally underrepresented could potentially see this as an opportunity to enter a male dominated race. Again, this is all subjective and no real measures can be drawn at this time to support or deny these claims. Cons The City Clerk has attended open house sessions and meetings to discuss and unravel the recent changes to the MEA and there were comments expressed by either other councillors or staff in attendance. The following represents some of the concerns: The ranked ballot election results takes longer; processing of the results must be done once all the polls have reported and then they are run through the algorithm. Cities in the US have reported up to 15 days for the final results. Report Page 2 of 4

3 Ballots for school boards cannot be ranked balloting, therefore, should Council choose this option, technically two separate processes are necessary and a further logistical challenge for the elector and staff. A quote from the Ottawa Citizen From the perspective of the clerk, who must ensure the integrity of the process, achieving full confidence that the machines have proven, audited and auditable capacity to provide accurate results for both ranked ballot and firstpast-the-post ballots would be an administrative challenge. The cost to the municipality of conducting the election has been extensively reported by many municipalities. Some cities have reported a 50% increase to the overall cost of running their election. Without knowing other factors that may affect this number staff feel a conservative additional cost of $98,000, which would include, ballot production, added staffing, education and communication. The availability of the present technology and its ability to perform on Election Day is an important consideration. While staff have met with a vendor for vote tabulators about the ranked ballots, and we have been told they are capable of doing this, (for an additional cost) staff feel this is a relatively new process and there is little information on the equipment s performance. The impact of the proposed by-law on election administration. If Council wishes to consider this option, public consultation would be required and a public meeting prior to the passing of a by-law. The public meeting must provide information on how the election would be conducted, including a description of vote counting; best estimated costs of conducting the election this way; any voting and vote-counting equipment that is being considered for use in the election; and further any alternative methods of voting being considered (ie: internet, telephone, etc.). Timelines are extremely tight and must be met. The municipality must hold an open house, at which time all the above-noted considerations must be in place. The public must be provided 15 day notice and given the number of eligible electors in St. Catharines, staff would provide for more than one open house. A mandatory public meeting of Council that must provide for a further 15 day notice and would follow the open houses. The by-law must be passed no later than May 1 in the year before the election. Additional training for staff, election workers and the general public, would be required given the complexity of this model. There would definitely be a need for more poll workers, to keep wait times down on Election Day, and to spend added time with the voters explaining how they complete their ballot. The preliminary estimate for extra staffing would be $60,000. Given the number of changes staff are trying to discern along with the number of policies and procedures that will need to be in place prior to proceeding, a change of such significance would need to be a priority, thus making it extremely difficult to accomplish all of the tasks necessary to meet the legislative guidelines, with the existing staff resources. The low voter turnout in St. Catharines should be considered as this may discourage rather than encourage the electorate simply because of its complexity. St. Catharines population is predominantly older and therefore a preference for a familiarity when coming to the polls. Report Page 3 of 4

4 The directly elected Regional Chair will not be done by a ranked ballot as two municipalities in the region have said no to considering this option therefore it disqualifies all municipalities for this preference as all the municipalities must vote the same. A further complexity at the poll. Financial Implications The preliminary estimate of $98,000 to implement this model would be added to the cost of running the 2018 Municipal and School Board Election. Conclusion In conclusion, the information contained herein represents a significant change to the way the municipal election would take place in St. Catharines in At this time, Council must consider whether or not there is an appetite for a change to the way St. Catharines residents vote. Given the information, to date, staff feel that the cost, time and implementation of ranked ballots for the 2018 election would be prohibitive. No other municipality in the Region or the Province has said yes to this option, therefore, staff feel being the first to run a ranked ballot election may not be prudent without more time for research and public consultation. Prepared & Submitted by: Bonnie Nistico-Dunk City Clerk Approved by: Heather Salter Director of Legal and Clerks Services/City Solicitor Report Page 4 of 4

5 RANKED BALLOTS 1 Prepared by: Ministry of Municipal Affairs (extracted from the web site) Single-member election: an election where one candidate is elected In this election, you are being asked to vote on the kind of fruit that will be served as a snack. Ranking the ballot With ranked ballots you can rank your choices from your most preferred to least preferred option. You rank the choices as follows: Cherry 1 Pear 2 Strawberry 3 Apple 4 Calculate the threshold to be elected Thirty people voted, and only one fruit can be chosen. Sixteen votes are needed for a fruit to be elected (50 per cent of 30 votes is 15 votes, plus one makes it a majority).

6 Count the first choice votes After the ballots are distributed according to first choices, the vote count looks like this: None of the fruits has received enough votes to be elected. Eliminate the option in last place and redistribute those ballots to other candidates Your first choice, Cherry got the fewest votes. Your ballot will now be given to your second choice, Pear. (The ballots of everyone else who voted for Cherry as their first choice will also be redistributed to their second choices). After the 5 Cherry ballots are distributed, the new vote count is: After the second round of counting, none of the fruits has received enough votes to be elected.

7 Drop the last place and redistribute those ballots Strawberry now has the fewest votes. Your ballot stays with your second choice, Pear. After the 7 Strawberry ballots are redistributed, the new vote count is: Pear is elected with 17 votes. Even though your first choice didn t get elected, your ballot helped your second choice to win. Multi-member Election: an election where more than one candidate is elected In this election, you are being asked to vote on what new equipment should be installed in your neighbourhood park. Three pieces of equipment will be chosen out of a possible six. Ranking the ballot

8 With ranked ballots you can rank your choices from your most preferred to least preferred option. You rank your choices as follows: Monkey bars 4 Picnic Table 5 Sandbox 3 Slide 6 Swings 1 Treehouse 2 Calculate the threshold to be elected In a multi-member ranked ballot election, the number of votes needed to be elected will depend on how many seats are being filled. In this example, one hundred people voted, and three pieces of equipment will be chosen. In order to be elected, a piece of playground equipment must earn twenty-six votes. To do the math, one hundred votes divided by 4(3 pieces of equipment will be chosen, plus one is 4) is 25 votes, plus one is 26. Count the first choice votes After the ballots are distributed according to first choices, the vote count looks like this: Swings has received more than 26 votes, and is declared the winner.

9 Distribute the surplus Since the threshold is 26 votes, and Swings got 39 first choice votes, Swings got 13 more votes than is needed to be elected. Swings has a surplus of 13 votes. Thirteen divided by 39 is one-third. This means that Swings only needed two-thirds of your vote (along with two-thirds of the vote of everyone else who had Swings as a first choice) to be elected. The two-thirds of your vote that Swings needs to be elected will stay with Swings. The other one-third of your vote will be given to your second choice, Treehouse. Each ballot that had Swings as the first choice will give one-third of their vote to their second choice. After the ballots are redistributed, the new vote count is:

10 Round 1 total Votes added New total Monkey Bars ballots worth 1/3 each: 3.66 votes Picnic Table 7 15 ballots worth 1/3 each: 5 votes 12 Sandbox ballots worth 1/3 each: 4 votes 20 Slide 19 0 votes 19 Swings ballots worth 1/3 each: -13 votes 26 elected Treehouse 7 1 ballots worth 1/3 each: 0.33 votes 7.33 As it turns out, yours was the only ballot of the one hundred votes that chose Swings as the first choice and Treehouse as a second choice. Treehouse s vote total increased by one-third of a vote. None of the candidates other than Swings has earned the 26 votes needed to be elected. Drop the last place and redistribute those ballots Treehouse got the fewest votes, so it is eliminated. Treehouse s votes are now redistributed. Your one-third of a vote will be transferred to your third choice, Sandbox. After the Treehouse votes are redistributed, the new vote count is:

11 Round 2 total Votes added New total Monkey Bars Picnic Table Sandbox Slide Swings 26 elected 0 26 elected Treehouse votes redistributed 0 None of the other candidates has earned the 26 votes needed to be elected. Drop the last place and redistribute those ballots Picnic Table has the fewest votes, so it is now eliminated. Picnic Table s votes are now redistributed according to their next choice.

12 Round 3 total Votes added New total Monkey Bars Picnic Table Sandbox elected Slide elected Swings 26 elected 0 26 elected Treehouse Sandbox and Slide have each earned 26 votes, so they have reached the threshold to be elected. Recall that in this election, three pieces of equipment were to be elected out of a possible six. Since three candidates have reached the threshold, the counting stops. The three winning candidates are Sandbox, Slide and Swings.