Despite overwhelming opposition from Alberta municipalities, the votes cast in next year’s municipal elections will have to be counted without the use of electronic vote tabulators.

This change is being imposed on municipalities by the province, although the former will bear the costs (which could run into the millions of dollars for Calgary and Edmonton). To be sure, there is no actual problem that’s been cited by the province to justify the change. This is all pandering to suspicions or paranoia about how a reliance on these machines could somehow be problematic.

So we have a costly policy change with zero evidence to indicate it is necessary. That is not ideal. Unfortunately, it may not be the only example of this trend when it comes to this government and our voting system.

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