Marg Sharpe will get her recount.
The Ward 2 councillor in Ramara Township lost her bid for the mayor’s seat in October’s election, when incumbent Basil Clarke defeated her by 14 votes — 2,126 to 2,112.
During Monday night’s council meeting, Sharpe earned the support of council, which voted 4-2 in favour of a recount.
Clarke and Coun. John Appleby voted against the motion. Coun. Kal Johnson was not at the meeting.
“I owe it to myself and the residents who voted for me to ensure the counts are correct and the integrity of the voting process,” Sharpe said. “I have had a lot of support from residents who want this recount and there are questions (about) if their vote was counted.”
She mentioned there were concerns such as a “noisy line” while trying to vote via telephone and voters getting kicked offline while trying to cast their ballots on the internet.
She said the number of participating voters and the number of votes cast did not “balance.”
Of the township's 11,146 eligible electors, 4,344 voted. Of those, 4,301 made a choice for mayor, suggesting 43 opted not to. However, there were 18 spoiled ballots for the mayor’s race, while 45 declined to choose between Clarke and Sharpe, representing 63 votes.
“The township needs to do more in-depth research to find these lost votes and complete a recount,” Sharpe said.
Clarke made it clear he would not support Sharpe’s request.
“I have no problem criticizing the system, if that’s what you want,” he said to Sharpe, “but I think (a recount) is a waste of time.”
“You’ve got to have the confidence that the voting is correct,” Sharpe responded.
After the vote, when asked if she felt confident about her chances since a recount was approved, Sharpe said she was more concerned about accuracy than winning.
“It needs to be more in-depth because anything is supposed to balance,” she said.
Sharpe supported the move to online voting when council chose to introduce it for the Oct. 22 election. She still supports it, but feels many voters were confused about it or experienced technical difficulties.
Clarke, on the other hand, never supported the move.
“My message to the new councillors would be don’t pick (this) system next time,” he said, noting he “heard concerns all over” from residents.
When the recount will take place is not yet known, but it must happen before Nov. 26.
