With a municipal election on the horizon for October 2026, the Townships, including the City of Cornwall, created an election working group, sending out a united Request for Proposals (RFP) from companies that offer three types of voting: in-person ballots, online/internet and telephone voting.
Each Township considered its voters’ habits and preferences when reviewing the services offered by the companies that submitted the RFP. Both South and North Glengarry, along with other municipalities, have chosen to use Voatz, a company that uses blockchain technology for the voting process.
Blockchains are used in industry to make data that cannot be altered. This decentralized, public digital ledger records transactions which, in this case, are the votes. And because a block cannot be changed, there is only a single point of trust for the user or program that enters the information and provides an anonymous record that can be audited.
While South Glengarry and many of the other Townships within Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry will only be offering online or telephone voting, North Glengarry will continue to offer paper ballots as well at the municipal election in 2026. The majority of North Glengarry voters fell into the 50- to 80-year old demographic who prefer to use paper ballots. Voatz provides optical scanning equipment that will tabulate any paper ballots submitted. North Glengarry Council also wanted to ensure that Voatz can provide telephone voting support in both English and French to accommodate all voters.
For the Township of South Glengarry, the estimated cost to use Voatz in the municipal election will be $16,298.85. Reflected in South Glengarry’s 2026 budget will be a transfer of $40,000 from the Elections Reserve as part of the election budget planning. For the Township of North Glengarry, the estimated cost will be $30,488, broken into four cycles, with the first payment of just over $9,000 incurred in 2025; however, the total amount will be reflected in North Glengarry’s 2026 budget.
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