Waye Mason, the councillor for District 7, says e-voting may not be the way to go. (CBC)

A newly-elected councillor with the Halifax regional council is calling for an end to electronic voting and an increase of more traditional polling stations.

Waye Mason, the councillor for District 7, acknowledged his opinion may be surprising because he embraces technology, but he said it's that knowledge that causes his concern.

"Knocking on doors in apartment buildings and condos all through District 7, I had a lot of seniors saying, 'I remember when, before amalgamation, there used to be a ballot box in the main floor lobby of this building,'" he told CBC News.

"I've started to wonder whether or not having more ballot boxes for traditional voting more readily available than we've been doing these last couple of elections might actually reverse the trend more than electronic voting has."

The Halifax Regional Municipality spent more than $500,000 on the e-voting system for the Oct. 20 municipal election.

Of all eligible voters, 22 per cent used the phone or computer to cast their ballots — more than half of all the people who voted. Total voter turnout in the Halifax Regional Municipality was 37 per cent.

"We spent a lot of money on e-voting and it didn't change the number of people who voted in the election," said Mason.

Mason said paper ballots are also better from a security standpoint because they leave a trail that can be recounted if necessary.

He believes a small percentage of people voted online only because they could, and said he doesn't think eliminating e-voting would reduce the number of voters.

Mayor Mike Savage said he thinks e-voting is the way of the future.

"People who e-voted this time, by and large, told me it was simple, it was easy, that they felt very good about it," he said.