Online voting back on in Clarence-Rockland

The city of Clarence-Rockland, Ont., has reinstated online and telephone voting in next Monday's election after earlier cancelling the voting method because voter PINs had been compromised.

The municipality's clerk, Monique Ouellet, had announced the cancellation at a city council meeting Monday night, but on All in a Day on Tuesday, she told host Alan Neal the vote was back on.

Voters in Clarence-Rockland had been mailed letters with personal identification numbers inside, allowing them to vote online and by phone.

But some people complained that the number was visible through the windows of some of the envelopes, "resulting in both the voter ID and voting PIN not remaining confidential to the elector," according to a city media release.

Ouellet said the city has cancelled those PINS, but said residents can still vote online if they come to the city office to get a new PIN. She said residents with questions should call the city at 613-446-6022 ext. 2300.

Former mayor Jean-Marc Lalonde, now a candidate for councillor, said some people have travelled outside of the region and therefore can't vote now that voting by Internet and phone are cancelled.

But Ouellet said those people were given their voter IDs and PINs through a difference process, and that she has ensured those PINs were not cancelled.