In North Kawartha, we are experiencing a higher than normal level of ballot rejections – currently running at 20%.  This is largely due to voters not including the voter declaration form along with the ballot secrecy envelope, or else putting the declaration form in the secrecy envelope along with their ballot.  Either of these occurrences results in a rejected ballot.

I am aware that our Township Clerk, Connie Parent is closely monitoring the situation, and is consulting with other townships in our area which used the same mail-in ballot system.  Ms. Parent is very experienced, and I have full confidence that she will make the appropriate decisions as we move through this election.

Mail-in balloting is very important to a township like North Kawartha.  Over 75% of our voters are seasonal residents, and during this off-season, most of them are at their full-time residences.  Our voter turnout would be very significantly reduced if the mail-in system was not in place.  Indeed, in the last election our turnout was 50% cross the township, a level not achieved very often in municipal elections.

It has been suggested that voters who did not send in their declaration form be allowed to request a replacement ballot, since their vote will not be counted.  Due to the logistics of requesting, verifying, mailing out voter packages and mailing in ballots, this alternative would not be possible for all voters in the time remaining.  Also, seasonal residents would be at a disadvantage due to their distance from North Kawartha.

While there have been a high number of rejections, the fact still remains that 80% of the voters got it right. I do not know the actual reject rate in the last election, but I suspect that several changes to the mail-in package increased the rejection rate this time.  I am confident that improvements will be made to the instruction sheet and ballot layout to make them more error-proof for future elections.