Vancouver city council’s decision June 6 to switch from alphabetical to randomized name order on the 2018 municipal ballot will be confusing to voters, according to a COPE candidate for city council.
Anne Roberts, a retired Langara journalism instructor who’s served as a school trustee and city councillor in past years, came to that conclusion through experience.
Roberts ran successfully for school board in the 1993 race when the ballot order was determined by a draw. She kept the sample ballot from that year to use for class discussions about civic elections.
“I do remember we were told after this one time … that people found it very difficult. There were lots of problems and so they decided to abandon it. I never heard anybody on our side complain [about abandoning it] because it was difficult to try and find who you were looking to vote for,” she said.
“If you only have one vote for mayor, that’s easier to find — you can go down the list. When you’re choosing 10 for council out of 50-some people [it’s more difficult],”
If Vancouver had wards where 5-10 candidates, no problem finding your choice. But in at-large elxn where 50+ running for cnl surprisingly difficult, confusing. Tried in 1993 & then dropped #vanpoli pic.twitter.com/LLVXscoCtQ
— Anne Roberts (@anne_roberts_bc) June 7, 2018
A July 9, 1996, administrative report from city staff recommended ballots be switched back to alphabetical order. It stated: “In 1993, the City Clerk recommended, and Council approved, the order of names be determined by lot. With the number of candidates seeking election for city office, the resulting random order made it difficult for voters to locate candidates names on the ballot. This proved confusing for voters, and resulted in numerous complaints from voters at the polls on election day. It is therefore recommended the city return to the practice of arranging the names of candidates alphabetically by their surnames, as provided by Section 78.”
The winners from the 1993 election can be found listed on the city website here. Their vote count isn't digitized but it can be found through the City of Vancouver Archives. (See 1993 results posted at the end of this story. Vote results from elections between 1996 and 2017 can be found on the city website here.)
Council’s decision to adopt a randomized ballot for the upcoming election was out of concern there is a bias towards names at the top of the list. Six of 10 current councillors have last names beginning with A, B, C or D. Similar results have been noted in other recent Vancouver elections. Some suspect the bias is towards both the top and the bottom of the ballot, with those in the middle earning fewer votes, while party affiliation also plays a significant role.
(Council’s June 6 decision only affects the mayoral, council and park board races. The Vancouver School Board is considering its options and must make a decision by Aug. 6. School Board staff, in a June 11 committee report, recommend the school board follow the city's example and switch to a name order chosen by lot.)
The Vancouver Charter, meanwhile, allows for one of two types of ballots — alphabetical or one where name order is determined by lot. Roberts told the Courier she was surprised news reports about the ballot order proposal, and subsequent decision to switch to a randomized list, didn’t include mention of the 1993 experience.
Information about that election wasn’t in the June 6 report to council, although staff did outline concerns that voter confusion and longer voting times might be an issue — the Township of Langley, for example, had a randomized ballot between 1993 and 2011 but reverted back to alphabetical order after the 2011 race due to complaints. Its 2011 ballot listed 41 candidates.
Vancouver’s election ballot in 2014 had 119 names.
To address concerns about potential voter confusion, council approved a $235,000 increase to the 2018 election budget. The money will be spent on communicating the name order change to the public and adding staff at voting stations. The Vancouver elections office also told the Courier that the current ballot style differs from what was printed in the 1993 race. Names are now listed by last name and then by first name, with party affiliation listed to their right. Names are aligned to the left of the box, rather than the right. Voters fill in ovals to the left of each name rather than connecting the arrows.
Roberts suspects people might think she’d be in favour of the randomized ballot style because her last name starts with R but she says that’s not the case because she believes the list of candidates in an at-large system can run too long.
“Under an at-large system it's just too confusing, especially for a city as large as Vancouver. If you’re in a small community and just had a few people running, great, but Vancouver needs to go to a ward system for a lot of reasons. I’m just saying this is not a real fix when you’ve got 50 names to go through. Now you’re making it even more confusing.”
Reality is there's no good fix for at-large system in city the size of Vancouver. And, there's no good reason why over past 10 yrs city didn't switch to wards or mixed wards/PR system. Simple majority vote at council would do the trick.
— Anne Roberts (@anne_roberts_bc) June 7, 2018
Although 54 per cent of Vancouver voters rejected a proposal to switch from the at-large to a ward system in a 2004 referendum, Roberts thinks it’s time to revisit the idea. She argues the move to a randomized ballot is “not good enough.”
“There’s no real fix, in my mind, for an at-large system. I don’t think this will help… It just makes it harder to find who you want to vote for."
SAMPLE BALLOT 1993 ELECTION (election results below ballot)
MAYORAL RACE 1993
Top 5 finishers (23 candidates)
Ballot Candidate Party Votes
Placement
(2) Philip Owen NPA 46,687
(11) Libby Davies COPE 37,812
(9) Bob Seeman 4,834
(1) Jonathan C.F.D. Himsworth 683
(21) Stu Campbell 581
1993 CITY COUNCIL (46 candidates)
Top 10 (elected)
Ballot Candidate Party Votes
Placement
(11) Lynne Kennedy NPA 44,542
(10) Don Bellamy NPA 42,281
(27) Gordon H. Price NPA 41,982
(28) George Puil NPA 41,970
(42) Maggie Ip NPA 39,409
(9) Jennifer Clarke NPA 39,377
(8) Sam Sullivan NPA 35,770
(39) Nancy Chiavario NPA 35,214
(26) Craig Hemer NPA 33,954
(2) Jenny Wai Ching Kwan COPE 32,150
1993 PARK BOARD (41 candidates)
Top 7 (elected)
Ballot Candidate Party Votes
Placement
(4) Malcolm Ashford NPA 37,146
(5) Tim Louis COPE 35,092
(39) Duncan Wilson NPA 33,615
(14) Allan De Genova NPA 33,314
(17) David D. Chesman NPA 33,258
(28) Alan P. Fetherstonhaugh NPA 31,705
(16) Donna Morgan COPE 30,130
1993 SCHOOL BOARD (29 candidates)
Top 9 (elected)
Ballot Candidate Party Votes
Placement
(3) Sandy McCormick NPA 41,802
(10) Ken Denike NPA 41,419
(7) Carol A. McRae NPA 40,283
(12) John Cheng NPA 38,650
(23) Ted Hunt NPA 37,438
(29) Bill Brown NPA 36,992
(17) John R. Robertson NPA 34,297
(6) Yvonne Brown COPE 33,307
(24) Anne Roberts COPE 32,202
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