Computer glitch snarls weekend rollout of Calgary's online census

The City of Calgarysays several thousand people encountered a glitch when they tried to submit online civic census forms over the weekend.

Thecensus started on April 1. Codes were mailed to all households, which residents then enter online to fill out the questions and register to vote in the fall municipal election.

About 3,500 people received an error message when trying to submit their voter registration information, said Paul Denys, manager of election and census for the city.

"We did encounter a slight IT glitch, which was causing census data to be submittedbut was preventing the voter registration data from going through, which would then result in an error message appearing on the screen.

"So the next error message that you get basically is caused by the fact that there is, in fact, sensitive data in the system. And the system thinks somebody's trying to submit data for a second time for the same address."

Highest participation

There was also a backlog as people tried to call the city to get it all sorted out.

Theglitch has now been fixed and callers should be able to get through more easily, Denys said.

So far, the communities with the highest participation rate in the online census are:

• Panorama Hills.
• Edgemont.
• Cranston.
• Evergreen.
• Signal Hill.

Door-to-door census takers will start visiting those who have not entered their information online starting on April 22.

Anyone who has technical difficulties, or has lost their access code, can call403-476-4100(option 3),MondaytoFridaybetween8 a.m. and 8 p.m, or onSaturdayandSundaybetween10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Users can also visitcalgary.ca/censusto request a new code.

Censusinformation is used for planning services, such as roads, transit, recreationand water services, as well as the school boards for enrolment predictions and decisions on future schools, the city says.

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