Elections boss worried by polling problems  
Last d Nov 8 2005 08:31 AM EST
CBC News

 
Quebec's Chief electoral officer says electronic balloting may not be the best voting system for bigger cities. Various computer glitches and other problems delayed balloting and voting results for municipal elections in Quebec City and Montreal. The electronic voting systems were supposed to bring results minutes after polls closed. But results in parts of Montreal and Quebec City were delayed by as much as 24 hours. A Quebec City company, PG Eelections, was responsible for the vote counting machines used in Quebec city and Montreal. Company officials blame delays on a few defective balloting machines and a crash of the computer networks used to transmit results. Quebec's Chief Electoral officer says he wants to know what went wrong during the election. A spokesman for the Directeur G&eacuten&eacuteral des &Eacutelections du Qu&eacutebec says electronic balloting certainly will not be used for provincial elections any time soon. "We experienced something in big cities, which gives us to think that maybe we have to rethink some aspects of the electronic vote to improve it," says Denis Dion. The electronic system will not be used for a referendum either, Dion says, because the possibility of controversy is too high. Officials in both cities say legal proceedings against the company are not out of the question.