City stands by choice to notify police over possible electoral fraud
'We do whatever we can to protect the integrity of the vote,' Greater Sudbury clerk says
Sudbury's city clerk says she has no doubt that the online voting system will deliver accurate results after news that a city employee was able to vote twice in the last week— once in person and once online.
The city worker is now being investigated by Greater Sudbury Police and the city is also considering disciplinary action.
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But, city clerk Caroline Hallsworth had little to say on why the employee would be punished for pointing out the problem with the voting system.
"We have duplicate vote reports and they are checked every business day and we looked at the duplicate report and it was identified there,” she said.
“The employee also came forward. Again, because it's a matter of investigation, I can't provide more details at this time."
Hallsworth says the problem was traced to a faulty laptop being used in the advanced polls on the city's special voting bus.
The city also notified police about the creation of a fake website, which mimicked the city's site for casting ballots online.
None of the people involved appear to be trying to affect the outcome of the vote, however Hallsworth made no apologies for the city's decision to call Greater Sudbury police about this possible electoral fraud.
"In this day and age, where there are countries around the world where people don't have the right to vote, we take our right to vote very seriously,” she said.
“We do whatever we can to protect the integrity of the vote."
Hallsworth said she is confident in the online voting system, which more than 20,000 Sudburians have so far used this election.
Online polls close at 8 p.m. Friday.