Hamilton's 2022 municipal election 'perfect storm' of printer delays, paper shortages and glitches: auditor

After last year's municipal election that saw technical issues, a privacy breach and low voter turnout, Hamilton's auditor general is recommending 50 changes to improve the democratic process. 

Auditor general Charles Brown told reporters Wednesday that the review of the municipal election is unique, as it has likely never been done before in the city. Councillors requested the audit earlier this year after hearing about technical problems on voting day, Oct. 24, 2022.

"Municipal elections are quite a complicated beast just with the number of ballots, wards and candidates," Brown said.

He said while the clerk's office, which runs the city's elections, "substantially complied" with municipal election rules and didn't jeopardize election results, there were several areas of concern. 

Leading up to the election, for example, 450 personal email addresses were exposed when a clerk sent out a mass communication to residents who were voting by mail, said the audit. 

The privacy breach came down to "human error," made by a person who didn't understand the difference between the "BCC" function and "CC" function, Brown said. They copied all those in the email openly, instead of using the Blind Carbon Copy feature which keeps addresses hidden.

He recommended the office use email marketing software to make sending on mass communications less risky. 

A "perfect storm" also occurred when it came to sending out voter information cards, Brown said. Residents are supposed to receive voter cards in the weeks before an election that informs them where, when and how they can vote.

The vendor couldn't print the cards in time, and a paper shortage made it challenging to find a new company, the audit said. 

"The cards went out very late, and were barely available to voters before advanced polls," said Brown.

The voter list, which contains residents' addresses, was also outdated, according to the audit. Some residents received their voter notification cards late or not at all.

On election day, a dozen of the 176 polling stations opened late and issues persisted throughout the day due to slowdowns with the computer system that captures voter information, Brown said. 

Delays at the polls meant some people left "in frustration," the audit said.

Brown's recommendations range from improving election staff training and sending out vote by mail packages sooner to creating more thorough contingency plans for when there's technology issues.