After losing his election race in Ward 1 in Dysart et al by 33 votes last week, Rob McCaig has submitted an official recount request with the township’s returning officer.
McCaig said he has “several concerns” over the way this year’s municipal election was handled, claiming he heard from dozens of locals who weren’t included on the voters list, despite voting in previous elections, and seniors uncomfortable with phone and internet voting.
Running in Ward 1 for a second time, after a second-place finish in 2022, McCaig lost out on the seat to Deb Lambe, who prevailed 366 votes to 333. Danny Roberts finished third with 251 votes.
“In the last election, I had a lot of people say, ‘hey, you only lost by 58 votes, you should have put in a recount request,’” McCaig said. “So that, but also the fact there’s been so many anomalies I came across during this election – for instance, a local family I know had one of seven eligible voters in their household receive their voter card.
“Some people had addresses missing on their form – these are houses that have been around for over 50 years, yet they were missing off the voters list. Then there were people who thought they could vote in one ward because they owned a business there, like they have before, but because they lived in another ward, that became the only place they could vote,” McCaig added.
Voters could have contacted election or municipal staff to get on the list. Per the Municipal Elections Act, property owners can only vote in one ward in their community. Seasonal residents can vote at home and in the County.
McCaig confirmed he submitted his request Oct. 26, shortly after election results were made public.
Dysart CAO and acting clerk, Tamara Wilbee, said McCaig’s request will be taken to the new council’s inaugural meeting Nov. 24 for consideration. She noted Section 57-58 of the elections act provides guidance related to recount requests.
“Council should only agree to a recount if there are sufficient grounds to doubt the electronic result,” Wilbee said. She confirmed the township doesn’t have a policy of its own, so would refer to the provincial document.
Wilbee noted McCaig, or any other person, can request a recount through the superior court within 30 days of the official results being posted. Results were made official in Dysart Oct. 27.
If a recount were to take place, Wilbee said it would be the same process used during the original count – where two election staff use secure tokens to unlock the results electronically, which then downloads into a Microsoft Excel file.
“As the entire process was electronic, there is no room for human error so a recount wouldn’t change the result,” Wilbee said.
Lambe said McCaig broached the issue with her, saying she encouraged him to proceed. “Every person has a right to have a recount and if that’s what he chooses to do, I think he should do it. I’m totally comfortable with that,” she said.
While McCaig was pleased to see increased participation this election cycle, with turnout in Dysart pegged at 39.46 per cent compared to 31.47 per cent in 2022, he feels it could have been stronger with in-person voting.
“That was the biggest issue I came across with seniors – they don’t like voting at home. They want to go to the legion, do this in-person and make it the big deal it always used to be,” McCaig said. “I had lots of people asking me if I could help them vote while I was at their door, and I had to tell them I couldn’t. So definitely, I think there were people who didn’t [vote because there wasn’t a designated in-person location].”
Minden Hills was the only township in the County to offer in-person voting, with Dysart, Algonquin Highlands and Highlands East all going phone and internet only. Even with in-person voting Minden Hills voter turnout was only 34.6 per cent.
Wilbee said Dysart ran mail-in ballots for years before transitioning to phone and internet voting for the 2022 election.
“We’ve used mail-in ballots since the 90s, so there hasn’t been an in-person vote in Dysart in quite a while,” she said.
