By Eric Bourque
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
The Municipality of Argyle wants to find out more about electronic voting.
At their committee-of-the-whole meeting last week Argyle councillors expressed interest in the subject after it was raised by Alain Muise, the municipality’s chief administrative officer, who said he is still gathering information on council’s behalf.
“It wasn’t the intent to get a decision (from council) tonight,” he said.
This is a civic election year in Nova Scotia. Election day for the province’s municipal units and school boards is scheduled for Oct. 20, the third Saturday in October.
Preparations for the election – appointing a returning officer, determining the method for preparing a list of electors, among other things – were part of the agenda for last week’s Argyle committee-of-the-whole session.
It was suggested that more details regarding electronic voting be brought back to council for consideration at a later date.
“Eventually it’s going to come,” said Councillor Charles LeBlanc. “That’s the future.”
Deputy Warden Richard Donaldson, who chairs Argyle’s committee of the whole, said one thing to think about regarding E-voting is whether it might encourage more people to vote.
Another issue raised at last week’s meeting was cost. The total cost of running the last civic election in the Municipality of Argyle in 2008 reportedly was about $30,000.
It was not known what the figure would be should the municipality go with an electronic vote, councillors were told during last week’s meeting.
The issue of electronic voting is being discussed by the Town of Yarmouth too. Town council moved in this direction recently when it met as a committee of the whole and the matter was expected to be come up again at town council’s regular meeting of Feb. 9 to be voted on by council.
