Elections Manitoba public committee meeting should focus on results delays: Goertzen

A delay in reporting voting results could be part of an Elections Manitoba public hearing at the legislature, one veteran MLA says.

As of Thursday, official election results were not available in all 57 electoral divisions.

In Flin Flin and Keewatinook, for example, one polling place was still unreported in each division nearly 48 hours after the polls closed.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

The province switched to electronic counting of paper ballots, which, despite promises to the contrary, did not appear to speed up results reporting.

Elections Manitoba has acknowledged the delay in delivering results but said Manitobans “can be assured that this was a free and fair election.”

The province, while still using paper ballots, has introduced electronic vote counting machines to speed up tabulation. Thousands were counted by hand in places where it’s not feasible to use e-machines.

Tory MLA and outgoing justice minister Kelvin Goertzen said Thursday it would be good for a public committee to meet with Elections Manitoba officials to talk about the “glitches” and the successes in the province’s 43rd general election.

“I have no concerns about the legitimacy of the vote. I have concerns about some things that did seem to take longer,” he said Thursday, as he prepared to move from government offices to the Opposition rooms.

“Nobody was expecting this to be flawless, but I do think people were surprised there were long gaps where there were no results.”

The machines received a byelection test run but it’s the first time they’ve been used during a full Manitoba general election.

“My suggestion would be that the government and the Opposition call for an Elections Manitoba hearing,” Goertzen said.

Such a committee meeting is an annual routine to talk about the elections process, and one welcomed by Elections Manitoba after every election, said Goertzen, who was first elected in 2003 and has served on numerous committees.

“I think it would be valuable to have that process early in the new (NDP) government’s mandate,” he added.

“There were a lot of things that went right,” Goertzen said of the election process, pointing to a record 200,790 people, or almost one-quarter of eligible voters, casting a ballot in advance, and Manitobans having the option of voting at any advance poll in the province.

“Elections Manitoba did a really good job of putting polls in places where people were,” he said.

“On the back end, on the counting side, there were some problems. What can we do to ensure that down the road that doesn’t happen again?

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol SandersLegislature reporter

After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.

   Read full biography