Heather Wright/The Independent

Petrolia has given the green light to an electronic voting contract for the 2026 municipal election.

Council approved a contract with Simply Voting Oct. 14

In a report to council, Mandi Pearson, clerk and director of legal services, said the town partnered with the City of Sarnia and nine other Lambton municipalities to search for a company to provide the online voting.

“As a combined RFP, we are able to secure better pricing for the service, then would have been possible if we were to seek as a single municipality,” she wrote.

Simply Voting will charge each municipality just over $3 per voter, plus $1.53 s for the production and distribution of voter information cards.

In Petrolia, the total cost will be almost $24,000, about $6,000 less than the municipality planned to spend on the 2026 election.

There have been concerns about the security of online voting. Pearson says Simply Voting’s software works with screen readers “and once the elector votes, the software ‘strikes’ them off the list to eliminate any duplicate voting.”

Pearson added the company has a good track record staring with 28 municipalities in 2018 and crowing to 50 in the 2022 Ontario municipal and school board elections.

Petrolia Mayor Brad Loosley has in the past voiced concern about older voters who would prefer a paper ballot. But there will be no small pencils and voter cards at all this time around.

 “We will continue to host a voting station location at Victoria Hall during the full voting period (which is 10 days) and on Election Day will allow ratepayers who wish to vote in person, a place to access an electronic device to do so,” Pearson writes.

“Staff will continue to be fully accessible during this time to provide any assistance a ratepayer may request.”