It’s hard to hold a politician accountable when you can’t find out how she or he voted.

That’s the challenge London voters faced as they contemplated whom to support in the civic election Nov. 13.

You might think city hall keeps a record of every contested vote — as Ottawa does — but that’s not the case.

Votes in London are done by a show of hands, with no names written down, unless a council member first requests that the vote be recorded.

The result is a voting record that too often leaves voters in the dark.

“There’s a paucity of recorded votes,” said former city councillor Sandy Levin.

The lack of a paper trail hurts the public but protects politicians who would rather not have their votes widely known, said George Sinclair, chair of the Urban League.

“They’ve been able to exist below the radar. It suits the purpose of many councillors,” Sinclair said.

Even when there is a recorded vote, it isn’t easy to figure out what council voted for or against, thanks to a lack of record-keeping.

The council minutes kept in Ottawa include the full resolutions being voted on but that is not the case in London.

London council’s minutes refer only to other reports that include resolutions, so a voter has to go juggle the minutes and reports to piece together what happened.

“This is not user-friendly. It’s like detective work to find out what happened,” Sinclair said.

Ottawa council even takes it one step farther, videotaping meetings and posting results on its website — voters can view meetings back to December 2003. Each meeting has an index of topics so users can jump directly to the part of a meeting that interests them.

Both Sinclair and Levin experienced first-hand how difficult it is to find our how council voted — each were part of teams that combed through records to produce an analysis of voting records.

London should follow the example of Ottawa, where the names of opponents of each resolution are written down when there’s no request for a recorded vote, Sinclair said.

“I fully support that,” he said.

But London city clerk Kevin Bain isn’t convinced changes are needed or affordable.

“Ottawa has a much larger staff than the city of London,” Bain said.

But in Ottawa, that city’s manager of council and committee services, Elaine Fluery, says their procedures require no extra staffing or costs. All that’s needed is a single sheet of paper and a member of the clerk’s office to write down names of opponents.

“It’s not a big deal,” she said.

Procedures followed in London comply with Ontario regulations, Bain said. Asked why London wouldn’t do more than the legal minimum, Bain repeated his previous statement: “Our bylaw is in complete compliance.”

The minimum simply isn’t enough, said Carol Agocs, former head of UWO’s local-government program.

“There’s a lack of transparency,” Agocs said.