Elections NB adds priority mail-in ballot, online portal for upcoming election

Elections New Brunswick will provide voters with priority mail-in ballots for the municipal elections thisspring to try to make the second election of theCOVID-19 pandemic in New Brunswick go more smoothly.

After a year-long deferral of the elections was prompted by last March's lockdown, the agency in charge of elections has been working to update the process before votes are castMay 10.

"We know there were a few challenges during the last election, so with a limited amount of time between elections, we tried to identify those things that would have the greatest impact that could be achieved easily," KimPoffenroth,New Brunswick's chief electoral officer, told Information Morning Saint Johnon Tuesday.

Mail-in ballots used to come with a postage-paid return envelope. Now, Poffenroth said, Elections NB will providea priority courier return envelope with a pre-printed waybill that can be brought directly to the post office.

She said that change was made to "speed up the process," andurged voters to take advantage of the mail-in ballots to avoid congestion at polling stations.

As well, voters can now request a vote-by-mail package through an online portal, rather than having to download and print theapplication and send it in.

"We know a lot of people have access to the internet, either through a smartphone, tablet or a standard computer, but what we found in September is a lot of people didn't have access to a printer," Poffenroth said.

In the 2016 municipal electionjust 34.5 per centof the eligible population voted, andPoffenroth said the goal is to see a larger voter turnout with these changes.

She said the turnout is much lower than provincial elections and varies widely across municipalities.

Poffenroth said, for example, in the last municipal election there was one municipality that saw 13 per centvoter turnout andanother with an 80 per centturnout.

Stand up and run, Poffenroth says

Aspiring candidates have until April 9 at 2 p.m. to file nomination papers.

Poffenrothsaid of the 717 positions up for grabs in the election, 397have only a single candidate or no candidate at all.

So far,Saint John isthe only municipality in New Brunswick that hasmore than one candidate for every position on the ballot.

"There won't be an election unless people stand up and run for those positions," said Poffenroth.

Legislative changes for pandemic purposes

A new mandate wasput in place last week that requires the delay of certain electoral processes in case a region is putinto lockdown because of COVID-19.

Legislation was introduced on March 19 called the "Act Respecting Municipal General Elections in 2021", which allowsthe chief electoral officer to modify election processes duringa state of emergency.

"That legislation applies to any state of emergency (in the province), but certainly the amendments were made in contemplation of the elections being held during the global pandemic," said Poffenroth.