The municipal election is less than 100 days away, and election officials are working on plans to meet new regulations put in place by the provincial government.
Election Returning Officer Kim Pinnock says some of these changes made to the Local Authorities Elections Act include eliminating the electronic tabulators from counting ballots, meaning that all votes will need to be counted by hand. Pinnok says that work is being done by city administration to analyze how many ballots have been cast in the past to predict how many ballots may be cast in the upcoming election.
“It is really going to depend on our voter turnout, so we’re working on some estimates right now to figure out how long we think it’s going to take us, depending on the total number of electors that come out and when we’d be able to have those results ready for the community,” Pinnok says.
She says results will likely not be available before midnight, but depending on the voter turnout, they could be available as early as 1 a.m. or 2 a.m.
Another change that comes from the new regulations is the mandatory permanent elector register, which previously was optional for municipalities.
“Elections Alberta has provided us an initial list of eligible electors, and we’re using that to further develop our municipal permanent register,” Pinnock says. “There are a few things that residents can do to prepare [for the election], the first thing would be to register in advance and ensure that you are on the permanent elector register, so you can go to voterlink.ca and we’re asking residents to go on and register before August 15th to ensure that they’re on there.”
Those who are not able to register ahead of time will still be able to vote, Pinnock says, but they will need to register at the voting site and have all the required identification.
Included in the work to prepare for the October election, the Returning Officer says they are working on recruiting election workers.
“We are going to need a significant amount of workers to help support us over our advanced vote dates and the election date.”
The fall municipal election is scheduled for Monday, October 20th, and the City of Grande Prairie has advanced voting scheduled for the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the two weeks before election day.
More information about the City of Grande Prairie municipal election can be found here.
