Letter: Let people count

To the editor:

This is an open letter to city council. On May 31, Roy Willis, Bob Wiley and I did a presentation to convince you to have our future municipal elections decided by people hand counting ballots, rather than having administration use machines to scan them. 

From our presentation, there is no doubt hand-counting ballots have more honesty and integrity, involves more people in the process and is less expensive to operate with additional financial benefits. 

However, it’s more than all of that.  It’s taking ownership of our democracy. 

To quote our city’s forefathers, “through municipal ownership, we have forever linked our destinies.” 

The foresight of this wisdom has given the city an A plus stable credit rating according to the Standard and Poor’s Report. 

Thunder Bay Hydro has provided a lower cost for electrical power for its citizens than anywhere in Ontario.

Thunder Bay Telephone has continually provided revenue back to the city. 
With the obvious successes of these public institutions, wouldn’t it make sense to take ownership on how we count ballots? 

Why are we continuing to sell off how we count votes to a private institution and city administration? 

We should be counting the ballots to decide who gets in, not machines controlled by a private company and city administration. Let the people count.

Andy Wolff,
Thunder Bay