Toronto voters want ranked ballots, smaller city council, poll finds

With the city’s newly elected officials preparing to take their seats in council for the first time next week, a new poll says the public would like to change how we vote and just how many seats there might be in 2018.

A Forum Research poll, which asked residents about electoral reforms, found overwhelmingly strong support — 64 per cent — for changing the voting system to ranked ballots. The majority would also like to see the number of wards and councillors cut in half.

Most people polled also agreed that what is now a nearly year-long campaign period should be shortened.

Forum’s poll found that people who live downtown were more likely to banked ranked ballots, as were those aged 35 to 44.

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Dave Meslin, the city activist behind the Ranked Ballot Initiative — which has been lobbying on this issue at city council and with the province for six years — said his group is “thrilled” by the support that has been building.

“We’re feeling pretty optimistic that council will do this,” Meslin said Wednesday.

In the past two years — ever since Councillor Paul Ainslie raised the issue of switching voting systems at the government management committee — the push for ranked ballots has led to Premier Kathleen Wynne calling for the option for all Ontario cities this September.

Ranked ballots allow voters to list who they want for office in order of preference. Someone is elected if they get 50 per cent of the vote. If no one gets 50 per cent, a run-off is done, cutting out the person with the fewest votes one at a time, and recalculating the percentages until a winner is found. The current system only allows one ballot choice and just requires the winner to get the most votes, even if it is less than 50 per cent — sometimes much less when there are many candidates running.

Advocates argue ranked balloting eliminates the impulse toward strategic voting — an issue debated during the last mayoral race pitting the Fords against John Tory and Olivia Chow — and negative campaigning.

To enable a switch to ranked balloting, the province must first authorize its use by changing the Municipal Elections Act.

A bill tabled by Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter (Scarborough-Guildwood) in February, to specifically allow the system in Toronto, is also currently being studied — something Meslin said he expects could take at least a year.

Meslin said it makes sense for the city to “wait for the door to be open” through the provincial process before taking further action on ranked ballots.

But in the meantime, he hopes any upgrades to voting technology considered by the city won’t hinder that switch.

The government management committee considered a motion earlier this year to ensure that upgrades to voting machines would allow for ranked ballots. That motion was left in limbo after it was referred to the city clerk without a vote to investigate costs. A report is expected next year.

Meslin said ranked-ballot backers are confident they still hold a majority of support on council after October’s election. A 2013 council motion asking the province to authorize the use of ranked ballots passed 26 to 15. Of the councillors who voiced their support, 23 remain on council, while on the ‘No’ side, only 10 remain.

During the campaign, Mayor-elect John Tory did not voice his support either way, saying he would not want to pre-empt any studies by both the city or the province.

Councillor Gord Perks, who voted in support of the province authorizing ranked ballots, said he has no objection, but said the real challenge is making elections more attractive to the 40 per cent who didn’t vote.

He said the most important electoral reform, which was not polled by Forum, is to allow some groups currently shut out of the process the right to vote.

“During this campaign, I was just astonished at the number of permanent residents who get municipal services and pay municipal property tax but have no voice in our elections,” he said.

The Forum poll also asked residents how they felt about the length of the election campaign, with 64 per cent saying it was too long. When given options, most people — 26 per cent — said the campaign should only be three months.

Those who have questioned the idea of shorter campaigns, including sitting councillors, say that idea would give an unfair advantage to non-incumbent candidates who can benefit from more time to raise funds and meet residents.

And as the city continues a ward boundary review — expected to be completed in 2016 — 56 per cent of poll respondents said they approve cutting the number of wards in half, from 44 to 22. The majority of support for a slimming of council comes from the suburbs, especially Scarborough and Etobicoke, where respondents were 62 per cent in favour of the idea.

But both Perks and Meslin said that plan is bad for constituents looking for engagement and action from their city councillors.

Perks said he has been consulted on the boundary review process and has argued in favour of more wards.

“Toronto is growing in population by the equivalent of a full ward every year, and if the public wants to maintain the level of access and service that they get from their elected officials and also have a council that sufficiently represents the diversity and number of neighbourhoods we have in this city, 44 isn’t enough,” he said.

Meslin pointed out that the idea seems unlikely to be raised at council, where members would essentially be voting on their own jobs.

“They’d be voting half of themselves off the island,” he said.

Forum’s interactive voice-response phone survey sampled 950 voters.

It is considered accurate plus or minus three percentage points 19 times out of 20.