Kitchener suspends live reporting of Election Results due to delays in neighbouring municipalities

Kitchener, ON – The City of Kitchener began reporting live results for the 2018 municipal election shortly after 8 p.m. when its polls closed on Monday, Oct. 22. Early on in the reporting of these results, the city became aware that other local area municipalities were extending the closing of their polls due to technical issues specific to those municipalities.

At approximately 8:30 p.m., the city received an initial request from the regional clerk to stop posting live results while they considered next steps for reporting, given the extended voting hours in neighbouring municipalities.

As one of the municipalities responsible for collecting results for regional council, the city’s website had been programmed to publish all results from Kitchener polls in real time, for all municipal offices. While awaiting further direction from the regional clerk, Kitchener’s election team worked to reprogram the city’s website to allow for continued live results of all Kitchener returns, with the exception of the regional chair results.

 At 9:35 the city was directed by the regional clerk to not report on regional chair results until the close of polls at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23.

The City also suspended the reporting of results for the French Public School Board given that the boundaries for these elected offices cross into neighbouring municipalities with polls still open.  The unofficial results will also be posted after 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23.

The city’s election team was able to successfully reprogram the website, allowing live reporting for all other offices to resume at 9:40 p.m.

Results will continue to be refreshed every two minutes at www.kitchener.ca until all polls have been reported.    

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