Improper voting practices force Lakeshore to release election results past midnight

The Town of Lakeshore knew its election results would be released later than other municipalities maybe 10 or 11 p.m.

After all, someone would haveto attend all eight drive-thru voting stations and bring the ballots back to town hall where they would be counted.

But, according to the town's communications manager Rita Chappell, a number of improper voting practicesforced the results to be released past midnight.

"When you mark your ballot, there's circles and you're supposed to fill the circles in. But some people would just put an X or a checkmark or they would circle the entire name. They did different things so the computer can't read that when you scan them through."

In federal and provincial elections ballots are marked with an X. But in municipal elections, ballots are marked by filling in the oval next to your candidate of choice.

For ballots which are rejected by the computerized reader, polling staff would have to go through each one and fill them out properly.

By the time Lakeshore released its results, it was about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Chappellsaid the addition of drive-thru polling stations were "very popular," giving people the ability to vote without getting out of their car.

"Plus, with the issues with Canada Post and potential work stoppage, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to drop off their ballots and not have to drive to town hall," she said.

"If you livedin Comber, there was location in Comber. There was a location in Stoney Point, etc."