Letter to the editor: Ranked Ballots

Dear Editor

Our local governments were granted the choice of switching to a ranked ballot voting system by the previous provincial government. Kingston held a plebiscite and was set to switch to ranked ballot voting in the next municipal election, so was Cambridge. And Toronto has been considering the idea for the future.

The City of London made a smooth switch to ranked ballot voting in the 2018 local election. No big upheavals, no big costs associated with the change, but more voter choices counted.

Under the system, voters rank their first, second and third choice candidates. If there’s no clear winner on the first count, then the second and third choice votes of last-place contenders are counted to decide who wins.

The result: No more candidates elected with as little as 17% of the popular vote.

It all sounds more democratic to me. One has to wonder why the province would ban a voting system option like this for municipalities, and bury that ban in a Covid-19 recovery bill. It does make it look as if you have something against more democratic elections.

I urge you to support municipal choice and reconsider the change.

Sincerely, Ginny Colling, Seagrave

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