An online ballot error affects 2 ward contests in Thunder Bay's municipal election

Two wards in Thunder Bay's municipal election could face byelections in the event of tight margins after a brief online ballot error.

On Wednesday, the first day of the advance voting period, some voters in McKellar who went to cast their ballots online were instead given the list of candidates running in Red River.

Thunder Bay city clerk Krista Power announced the issue on Friday morning, describing it as a "confined anomaly" that was the result of a program error with the vendor providing the online voting platform. The city clerk's office became aware of the situation after being contacted by a voter, she added.

The situation led to the online voting platform briefly being paused on Wednesday afternoon.

"What we know is when and how individuals cast their ballots," Power said. "We know, because we need to remove people from the voters' list, if they voted at X time using either internet or in-person. The secrecy of the ballot is paramount and protected by the Elections Act.

"I don't know how they voted."

Power said the issue affected 27 voters. If the margin of victory in either or both of the McKellar or Red River wards is 27 votes or less, Power said she would have to report the issue and go through a process under the province's Municipal Elections Act to request a byelection.

The affected ballots represent 0.2 per cent of eligible voters in the McKellar ward.

"It may be immaterial. The Red River ward councillor or the McKellar ward councillor may win by 1,000 votes and then this would be of little consequence," Power said.

The issue is specific to those two wards and does not affect any of the mayoral, at-large council, or school board trustee contests, Power added.

"We really do want people not to see this as a deterrent to voting," she said. "We want people to continue to participate in the municipal election. We want them to be assured that we're here today to tell you about this anomaly because it's important for transparency," she said.

"We don't anticipate any further challenges. If there were any further challenges, we'd report them immediately."

Power said clerk staff are in contact with other municipal clerks' offices in the province and providing information about the issue to help them avoid any of their own program errors. Thunder Bay was the one of the first municipalities to open the advance voting period.

As of Friday morning, more than 3,000 people had either voted online or at advance polls. Online voting is available in Thunder Bay throughout the duration of the campaign.

The municipal election date is Oct. 24.

One Red River candidate, Jason Veltri, said he spoke with Power on Friday to discuss the issue.

"I'm confident in the election's integrity," he said. "They corrected the issue through testing. I'm confident the election will continue open, fair and transparent. I'm satisfied with the city clerk's response to it."

The candidates in Red River are Veltri, Brad Ford, James Dean Marsh, Martin Rukavina, Katherine Suutari, and Michael Zussino.

The McKellar candidates are Cory Bagdon, Stephanie Danylko, Brian Hamilton, and Lori Paras.