When residents in Essex head to the polls next October, they will do so in-person and vote using paper ballots.
At Monday night's council meeting, administration asked council to consider moving to online voting for the 2026 municipal election.
Staff recommended choosing one of two options that included online only voting with voter information centres set up for assistance, or the second option of hybrid online, which would have included in-person voting, however residents would cast their ballots using electronic devices at the polling stations.
Ward 2 Coun. Kim Verbeek said there were too many unknowns with online voting such as hydro issues, potential hackers, or someone with malicious intent.
"We go with the tabulators and we can back it up, we don't have to completely rely, the tabulators aren't the end all be all because there's a paper ballot inside that box that we can open up and count," she said.
Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley was in favour of the hybrid online option and said he had full faith in everything online.
"I do everything, my life is spent online paying something or other. There's so much security there and what we're talking about is somebody coming into town hall or an election centre and voting on a computer, pressing a button, or marking a paper and running it through a computer. It's the same. I'm frustrated by this. I'm not usually frustrated," said Shepley.
Ward 1 Coun. Katie McGuire-Blais was also in favour of hybrid in-person.
"It's very similar to paper voting. There's not very much difference other than we're going to get the results faster, there is no human error, we don't have to worry about that," McGuire-Blais said.
During debate, Ward 1 Coun. Joe Garon brought forward a motion to have residents cast their ballots in-person using paper in 2026, the same method used in 2022.
"I've been in these places where it's computer and there's a demographic that are still afraid of that computer. I was in Walmart yesterday and I seen, they've got about 20 checkouts, and probably 10 of them were like hands up looking for help," said Garon.
Administration said voting with paper would cost $50,000 more.
Mayor Sherry Bondy said $50,000 is a cost to be paid for public perception.
"Even if all of us around this table here believe the online method is fool proof, the public perception is it's not, and tonight I am voting to represent what the public is telling us," Bondy said.
The motion passed 5-2, with McGuire-Blais and Shepley opposed.
Coun. Rodney Hammond was not present due to illness.
Last week, Leamington council rejected online voting for 2026, joining Lakeshore also who rejected online voting earlier this year.
However LaSalle decided to move towards online voting, removing the telephone option.