Losing candidates challenge vote-count machines
Two unsuccessful candidates in last year’s municipal election complained to council Monday that the vote-counting machines the town uses are technically faulty and subject to hacking.
Jean Clarke and Ray Vandenberg told council a review they conducted of recent scientific papers indicates the make and model of automated voting machines have resulted in: some votes not being recorded; votes being given to wrong candidates; hackers intentionally miscounting ballots; and other problems.
They advocated a return to manual counting of ballots.
Mayor Sue McKortoff said the town has safeguards in place to ensure the electronic counting machines are accurate. She added that with nearly three years to go until the next election, town staff has “better things to do” than look into the issue.
Councillor CJ Rhodes questioned the pair’s suggestion that they speak on behalf of other residents of Osoyoos. Vandenberg said they have broader support but choose to protect the identities of the like-minded citizens.
Vandenberg ran for mayor and finished with 290 votes, 995 behind McKortoff. Clarke finished last in a field of seven running for four council seats.
More information needed on water, council agrees
Osoyoos is on the cusp of facing two related and confusing water issues and council needs real, reliable and current information to deal with them, councillor CJ Rhodes said Monday.
Rhodes told a committee meeting that council is already facing the issue of water conservation and will shortly start down the road toward installing water meters. And while council has access to all sorts of statistics and other information, much of it is confusing ad contradictory, he said.
He asked town staff to supply council with information regarding where town wells are located and where the water in them comes. “Does it come from aquifers or from the lake?”
Mayor Sue McKortoff agreed. “It’s a huge issue,” she said, “and we need to make sense of it.”
Responding to the requests for information, deputy chief administrative officer Jim Zakall said, “We’ll get it done.”
Call before you dig: Town will sign up with BC One Call
Osoyoos will join the province-wide BC One Call program so that residents and businesses will be required to “call before they dig” to avoid hitting underground utilities.
Town operations director Jim Dinwoodie told council Monday: “An accident that damages one of the many buried facilities … can mean loss of life or personal injury, … environmental damage to the surrounding area or disruption of essential services.”
He said that when someone plans to excavate and informs BC One Call, the organization will contact the town and a crew will be dispatched to the area of the dig to mark the locations of underground utilities, such as gas or water mains and electrical or cable services.
The service will likely cost the town less than $500 a year.