Recently the Kingsville council transitioned to electronic voting at its regular meetings. Kingsville is the first local municipality to make this move. Some residents have asked why this change was necessary.

According to Mayor Dennis Rogers, many municipalities use a meeting management software called eScribe. The electronic voting capability is simply a component of the eScribe system.  As he noted, with a new council in place, it seemed like the right time to make this change.

Mayor Rogers further explained that with this change, votes will now be captured in the meeting minutes. This will provide a clearer record of votes. Previously members of the public would have to attend a council meeting or watch the recorded video of a meeting to see how each councillor voted on issues.

In order to ease in these changes, Kingsville plans to acquire new screens for council chambers to give members of the public an improved view of votes that are taking place. Both motions and votes are remaining onscreen for a longer period so the viewing public can witness the outcome of votes as they are taking place.

As always, paper copies of the meeting agenda are available at the meetings. Residents who cannot attend can also opt to have the agenda emailed to them on the Friday before an upcoming meeting.

Photo by Chris Anson