Cypress County's returning officer says the recent municipal election went about as smooth as it could go, though voter turnout is estimated to have dropped significantly from 2021.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
A smoother election than what occurred on October 20 would be difficult to imagine in Cypress County.
Returning Officer Sean Rooney compared the election to the 2021 municipal vote, which also included selecting nominees for the Senate of Canada and a referendum question in regards to Daylight Saving Time, making this year’s ballots much simpler.
However, voter turnout was also down significantly from that election, at 1,052 ballots cast compared to roughly 1,600 in 2021. Rooney estimates that this year saw about 18.8% voter turnout, though exact numbers won’t be known until the county registry is fully updated later this year.
“One thing I don’t think people realize is that Cypress County has always hand-counted our votes,” said Rooney. He explained that the population of the county simply does not necessitate electronic equipment, especially with the ward system keeping ballots short.
“I personally hand counted the five advance voting boxes that we had, with another election worker watching,” said Rooney. “One of those boxes had no votes in it. It almost took longer to complete the paperwork than to count the votes, since there’s five sets of forms for each box.”
On election day, boxes were distributed to centres within each ward, where they were then counted by volunteers and then driven to the office in Dunmore so Rooney could determine the correct vote counts. This was all completed by roughly 10 p.m., a full two hours earlier than the 2021 election, which had unofficial results posted shortly after midnight.
“Part of that’s a factor of not having to deal with the Senate and referendum questions,” said Rooney. “But I thank everybody who came out and was part of the process, whether they voted, whether they worked, or whether they, you know, helped in any way. Everything worked well. Hopefully, knock on wood, we will have that kind of success in the future.”
