The City of Montreal plans to hire thousands of people to work on the municipal election this fall because electronic voting machines won't be used to tally results.

Montreal municipal election spokesman Pierre Laporte said the city will need as many as 14,000 workers on election day to manually count votes, at an increased cost of $300,000.

The city has decided not to use electronic voting systems in the 2009 election because of problems in the 2005 election.

The electronic system used in 2005 was full of bugs, and caused several errors, forcing election officials to extend voting hours in some polling stations.

The province's auditor general investigated the problem and later recommended Quebec drop electronic voting systems in municipal elections.

In 2005, about 6,500 workers were hired to help count ballots.

Voter apathy

The 2009 municipal election is expected to cost Montreal about $12 million.

Voter turnout was about 35 per cent in the last municipal election.

Election workers are planning a flyer campaign to remind people to vote on Nov. 1.

Election watchers say the turnout for this election may be even lower.

"I think voter apathy is still going to be a problem here," said Christian Bourque.

Recent polls suggest almost half of Montreal's estimated 1,000,000 registered voters are either undecided or are simply not planning to vote.