Waiting for results

by Sean Frame

The Kingsville election results were postponed for several hours after the polls closed leaving some candidates annoyed with the process.

On Oct. 27 Windsor and all of Essex County held municipal elections with some of the municipalities using only online and phone polling systems. Kingsville was one of the municipalities using this method to count votes. Officials assumed because of the digital vote that results would come in quickly after polls closed at 8 p.m., but that was not the case.

Information company Scytl was responsible for the management of the voting in the municipalities such as Kingsville, Tecumseh and Essex, which were all delayed for results. On Scytl’s website they claim to be a worldwide leader in electronic voting, but the large crowd at Migration Hall would disagree. Several residents left after waiting more than two hours for results and the remaining residents and candidates remained until results were announced at 10:40 p.m.

Larry Patterson was elected as one of Kingsville’s five councilors and was disappointed with the event itself.

“I just wish the results were two hours ago. A lot of people showed up for this and a lot of people left disappointed,” said Patterson. “I am totally shocked at the way this whole thing was handled. They should have been out informing the people and the people that left were very upset.”

Although Patterson said he was upset with the wait and the lack of information he said he was still very pleased with the results. He congratulated all candidates for the great work they did on their campaigns.

Nearly half of the residents had gone by 9:30 p.m. as candidates grew impatient. Some of the residents speculated the results would be delayed a day or if there would have to be an entirely new poll to tally. Early in October, Kingsville resident Betty Ross began a petition to switch the online and telephone voting and even earlier in the year councillor Sandy Mcintyre had made a motion to consider mail-in ballots. The motion was defeated due to a lame duck council not being able to spend money on venues at this point in the election.

Kingsville Cathy Basskin candidate when asked what was going on replied “not very much.” Basskin said she grew impatient with waiting. She said online polling was not the blame, but the company Scytl was at fault.

“I think online polling per say has lots to be commended about,” said Basskin. “This particular server doesn’t have a particularly stellar track record. A future election process will have to look into various options and look into a company which will actually be able to deliver.”

Basskin said she believes online polling is supposed to deliver to a younger demographic, but after she took a brief look around Migration Hall she conceded the demographic wasn’t present at the event. Despite the long wait and even longer night, the results finally came in. To serve a fourth term as Kingsville mayor, Nelson Santos was elected one again. Throughout the night the would-be mayor took it upon himself to inform the residents about the issues and took some time to inform the media.

“Certainly we are concerned. There is always anxious candidates waiting to hear the final results,” said Santos an hour before the results were issued. “In terms of the commitment that we made before going through this process it certainly is not up to our expectations.”

While everyone was waiting Nelson said he was not getting nervous. He said that he had once waited until 11 p.m. in years past.