Slow election results blamed on double-checking numbers

Results from Wednesday’s civic election in Brandon were released slowly due to staff double-checking voting machine totals, the city’s top election official said.

Senior election official Heather Ewasiuk said the relatively slow poll results — the last of which came in at 11:24 p.m. — are a learning experience for organizers.

She also highlighted the increase in turnout compared to four years ago — about 27.65 per cent, up from 17.9 per cent in 2022.

“We had the results, of course, obviously shortly after eight o’clock,” Ewasiuk said Thursday.

“But then, by the time people came in and we had to download the SD (secure digital) cards in the machines to verify that it was the correct numbers, and we double-checked and double-checked to make sure our numbers were correct, it took a little while to get that all inputted onto the web page,” she said.

“Moving forward, maybe we just need more people. I think we’re at the point now that Brandon’s growing that we need to start looking at playing more like a bigger city.”

She said the private company the city leased machines from was “fantastic” and very accommodating, but in the future, she added, election officials could instead upload the unofficial results straight to the website instead of checking them right away. That method would still allow staff to double-check the numbers for the official results.

Ewasiuk said she wouldn’t be concerned about posting unofficial results before they are double-checked, and it’s her understanding that Winnipeg used that method Wednesday night. Election results in Winnipeg were all released significantly faster than in the Wheat City.

“We sort of had a middleman there where we were manually filling those numbers in, and that’s what took the time,” Ewasiuk said. “So, I think we could look at streamlining that process, for sure.”

Official results released Thursday morning confirmed that incumbent mayor Jeff Fawcett was re-elected for a second term, with 5,753 votes to Len Isleifson’s 4,845.

Fawcett on Friday said elections officials should try to advocate to the province to be allowed more staff in the future.

Wednesday’s results came in significantly faster than in 2022 when the city didn’t have voting machines and counted manually, but Ewasiuk told council before this election that results would be expected around 10 p.m.

“All said, it was faster than counting (by hand), but expectations were also higher than that,” Fawcett said.

He said he was getting impatient Wednesday evening waiting for results, but at the end of the day it didn’t really have an impact and it’s “not the end of the world.”

Ewasiuk said the election overall went smoothly, with more people than expected at some polling locations and fewer at others, and that in hindsight, staff could have been rearranged to fit that need.

One polling station for Ward 7 ran out of ballots 15 minutes before polls closed, and voters were redirected to another station. While some voters may have not been able to vote because of the late lack of ballots, the Ward 7 election had a margin of 485 votes between winner Shawn Berry and Quentin Robinson.

Ewasiuk said the increased turnout from 2022 suggested voters were more engaged this election.

Brandon University political science Prof. Kelly Saunders said while it’s good that there was a nearly 10-point jump in turnout, it is still “woefully low.”

“Less than 30 per cent of all eligible voters in the city took the time to get out and vote, and that’s really disappointing,” Saunders said.

Municipal issues are “incredibly” important to people’s day-to-day lives, she said. Civic elections have historically had lower turnout than federal and provincial votes.

Saunders attributed that to less press coverage overall of municipal elections, along with more TV and radio advertisements for provincial and federal ones. Party leaders also boost the turnout federally and provincially.

She noted, however, that there were still plenty of campaign signs lining Brandon’s streets along with lively debates for candidates, and that the local news media covered the race extensively.

“There’s really no excuse for voters that you know weren’t able to engage with the election. I think it’s just people don’t really understand the importance of municipal issues,” Saunders said, citing local infrastructure, police, water and waste.

The 10-point jump, she said, can be attributed to strong contested races for mayor and for most wards.

“We had two well-known, well-established figures in Brandon that were running for the mayor’s seat,” she said. “But when you look across the wards as well, we had some really terrific candidates, and candidates from a variety of different backgrounds in contested races.”

Fawcett said he wished more people had voted and that he wants to see turnout increase again in future elections.

» alambert@brandonsun.com