There will be no traditional marking an X or placing a check mark next to your candidates of choice on the ballot before tucking it into a box in this municipal election. Election 99 in Whistler is a little more technically advanced than elections of the past. Come election day Nov. 20, voters will indicate their choice for six councillors and one mayor by joining two parts of an arrow next to the candidate’s name before placing their ballot into an electronic counting machine. As soon as the polls close at 8 p.m. the totals can be tallied up right away instead of the traditional manual counting that kept candidates and voters in suspense until around 1 a.m. the following morning. This is also the first election some Whistler candidates have taken their campaigns on-line. YourPolitican.com was among the first to offer Whistler candidates free websites. Kristi Wells, Hugh O’Reilly, Ken Melamed, Nick Davies and Al Hurwitz have all listed their platforms on this site, which includes listings for civic politicians from across the province and country. Mountain Internet, in conjunction with Website Experts is offering free website hosting to candidates in the Sea to Sky country on their Elections 99 website. They charge a nominal design fee. The gotowhistler.com site has also entered the fray and is dedicating a section of their site to Election 99 issues. This site is for local candidates only who can post a photograph and campaign information for a $100 fee. The gotowhistler.com folk say the excepted traffic to this election feature will be 100 visitors a day and will increase to more than 300 in the two weeks prior to the election. The gotowhistler.com election site will also feature opinion polls with votes gathered electronically from Whistler residents and updated daily. Questions will be posted every other day leading up to election night and include: "Who would you vote for today?" and "What do you feel is the most important issue facing Whistler residents today?" In the week leading up to election day gotowhistler.com will also host an on-line forum for voters to chat with a chosen candidate. The forums will be scheduled and advertised one week prior to the on-line forum.
