For the first time in a general election, polling stations will rely on E-poll books and electronic voting tabulators.

“We are modernizing Ontario’s elections in a measured and principled way to give electors a better voting experience,” said Greg Essensa, Ontario’s chief electoral officer.

E-poll books contain a digital database of voter information, meaning elections officials won’t have to search through hundreds of names in a paper document.

Voting tabulators will electronically count each paper ballot that will be cast, eliminating the need for manual counting, which can sometimes lead to additional scrutiny and disagreements.

Byelection pilot

The system was first used in the February 2016 byelection in Whitby-Oshawa and the positive feedback convinced Elections Ontario to expand the system province-wide.

At the time, Essensa warned that polling stations for the 2018 election would be understaffed as the number of electoral districts grew to 124 ridings.

The new electronic system reduced staffing needs by 41 per cent.

The Whitby-Oshawa byelection also served as a road map for the voting and counting experience in 2018. On average, voters waited less than a minute to get their ballot if they came prepared with their voter registration card.

Reporting results on election night was much faster as well.

“The pilot showed we could potentially get 90 percent of the results reported in about 30 minutes,” Essensa said at the time.

But, don’t be alarmed if the process at your polling station hasn’t changed.

Only 50 per cent of provincial polling stations have been equipped with voting tabulators, while 9 out of 10 stations will have E-Poll books.

How it works

When voters enter a polling station, they will be handed a typical ballot tucked into a black privacy screen, similar to an envelope. Voters can then go to the voting screen and mark an ‘X’ beside the name of the candidate they are hoping to elect.

The voter will then tuck the ballot into the privacy screen and hand it over to an Elections Ontario official, who then places it into a tabulator.

Elections officials say it could take up to eleven seconds for the tabulator to read and mark the vote before the ballot is pulled into the machine and dropped into a cardboard box below.

All paper ballots are retained in case there needs to be a recount. The black privacy screens, however, will be recycled for the next voter.

Elections Ontario says there are 10.2-million eligible voters this election. An estimated 768,000 have already cast a ballot in the advance polls.