A survey conducted during Kenora’s election this past fall shows a 98 percent satisfaction rate.

The election was conducted using a combination of on-line and telephone voting.

87 percent of respondents indicated they were very satisfied with people 35 and under the most satisfied.

Just 14.62 percent of voters took the time to complete the survey.

Returning officer Heather Pihulak says the results of the study show the local residents feel confident using on-line voting.

“It’s provided evidence that, number one, our participation has continued to increase over the last three elections,” says Pihulak.

“Number two, people feel comfortable and confident in the election process, so that’s very important to me.”

Just over 55 percent of the people who took the survey said they didn’t have any concerns about voting by internet, but 19.5 listed security issues, 6.7 fraud and 2.9 percent privacy as concerns in the municipal election.

Pihulak adds that those numbers are reflected in their voter turnout.

“Very, very proud of our community and how the community supports the election and comes out to vote.  So we were number 1 in the province for a city.  Of course there were smaller communities that higher actual voter turn out, but for a city, we were number 1.”

Voter turnout in Kenora for the 2022 municipal election was 53.5% compared to 36.3% across the province.

In the last election in 2018, voter turnout in Kenora was 49.8%.

In terms of learning about the municipal election, voter information cards were the most popular source at 78%, followed by news, TV, or radio at 52%,  word of mouth or other people 50% and the web or social media 35%.