Better signage, more voting booths and improved technologies – those are some of the items voters would like to see in future civic elections.
Council has received a report from city clerk Jan Gibson about the 2014 local election, in response to a request for an update about issues related to voting machines, rejected ballots, how voters with English as a second language were able to access voter assistance and election staffing.
According to the report, 14 per cent of the election official positions were filled by staff who were multilingual. They spoke languages including Punjabi, Hindi, Swahili, Tagalog, Urdu, Gujarat-Achi, Ukrainian, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, French, Spanish, German and Dutch.
Following the election, the city’s election office sought feedback from election officials and the public about the election and received feedback from 38 individuals.
Some voters reported being “in and out” of polling stations with no lengthy lineups; some expressed frustration with longer lineups at locations that had a higher turnout and suggested improvements such as more staff; some identified the need for better signage inside polling stations and better signage for locations with elevator access; some were surprised they didn’t get voting information in the mail; and others would like the city to improve election technologies and set up more voting booths at each location.
