At its January 29 meeting, Huntsville’s General Committee instructed Huntsville Clerk Tanya Calleja to move forward with the formulation of a bylaw indicating that voting for the 2026 municipal election will be done by telephone and internet.
The bylaw will be presented to Huntsville Council when it meets on February 24.
Changes to the 2026 Huntsville municipal election include the pairing of Huntsville and Chaffey Wards and the compilation of the voters’ list, a responsibility that has gone from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation to the Chief Electoral Officer.
“It is much anticipated that this change will help capture a larger electorate than only property owners provided in previous MPAC lists,” noted Calleja in her report to the committee.
Calleja said all six Muskoka municipalities will be collaborating on election preparation. “As in 2018 and 2022, the six Muskoka municipalities will again be collaborating in releasing a joint procurement and awarding a vendor for internet and telephone services. As vendors usually have a maximum number of municipalities they accept, the Muskoka Clerks are eager to have their by-laws adopted in moving ahead with releasing the joint procurement.”
The report states that the total amount for expenses included in the 2026 election budget is $178,310.
“The contributions from the levy for the election is $41,000 for both 2025 and 2026,” it adds. You can find her report HERE.
The 2026 municipal election takes place Monday, October 26, 2026.
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Here is an idea to mull over.
Only those people who have a “principal residence” in a municipality should be allowed to get a vote in that municipality and they need to vote, in person, on paper.
These are the people who cannot easily parachute out of the area and will be thus more affected by municipal decisions. They are more likely to make better choices for the area than someone who only visits briefly for selected times of the year and actually lives elsewhere.
All people do have a “principal residence” somewhere and that is where they should be voting.
Locally the numbers of the voters following this process would be a lot lower than they are now and doing the vote on paper, as it was done for many years would still be very feasible. No foreign agency can affect a paper ballot and no fancy electronics are needed. It it takes a day to count votes that is not a big deal, we shall be saddled with whomever we elect for at least 4 years anyway.
I know your going to tell me this is beyond the scope of municipal ability to do. This is unfortunate. I think it would ultimately work better than what we do now.