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LETTER: Local voter upset by decision to kill ranked ballots

In the last municipal election, a council candidate was elected even though two-thirds of the ballots cast opposed the candidate, says letter writer
Letter to the Editor
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OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor. This letter is in response to our Oct. 21 story about the provincial government's legislation which sounded the death knell for ranked ballots. Send your letter [email protected]
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The provincial government has introduced the Supporting Ontario's Recovery Act, 2020 ( Bill 218) which proposes to eliminate the option of using ranked ballots in municipal elections.

The ranked ballot election system is more democratic than the first past the post system now in common use. The new system has been proven to work and the increased cost is not significant, so the decision by the government to stick to the old system is hard to justify.

This writer promotes ranked ballots because, in the last local election (in Ramara Township), one candidate who ended up winning and achieved full power as a councillor was opposed to by two-thirds of the votes cast. That's hardly a “democratic” decision.

So, it would be preferable to leave things as they are now which permit ranked ballots.

Konrad Brenner
Ramara Township
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