New West residents – including those who are planning a getaway in October 2022 – won’t have to worry about missing out on voting in the local election.
Council has directed staff to implement a mail balloting system for the next municipal election, which is set for Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.
“It makes it easier for more people to participate,” said Coun. Nadine Nakagawa. “A lot of folks have been advocating for this for a very long time. I am really happy and enthusiastically supporting the idea of having mail-in ballots.”
During the last election, Nakagawa said there were people who were going on trips and wanted to vote ahead of time, but there were limited options for those who weren’t in town at the time of the election.
“I think this is a great way to work on increasing voter turnout in municipal elections and offering access for people who don’t have it,” she said. “I think it checks all the boxes.”
According to a staff report, 83.7% of the 202 respondents to a survey done after the 2018 election supported the idea of making mail-in ballots available for future civic elections. Reasons for supporting mail-in voting include reducing barriers to vote, making voting more convenient, increasing voter turnout, helping people who travel and assisting seniors and person with disabilities who cannot get out to vote.
Because the Local Government Act requires municipalities to have a bylaw in place regarding processes for mail-in ballots, council has directed the city clerk to bring forward the necessary amendments to the city’s election procedures bylaw.
A report to council said staff will develop a process to issue and track mail ballots for the 2022 election. Options could include having electors requesting a mail ballot or requiring people to pick up a ballot in person.
“I am not super supportive of someone having to come in and pick up a ballot,” said Coun. Mary Trentadue. “I suppose if you are planning to mail in your ballot, I think that you may not want to actually go and pick it up as well. To me it kind of defeats the purpose of not having to come to city hall or having a challenge that makes you unable to come to city hall. So, I guess I am not super supportive of that requirement.”
Trentadue questioned the reasoning behind staff’s the idea of requiring voters to pick up a ballot in person.
“In the 2018 election, if you recall, Surrey had a bit of a problem with their mail-in ballots. Somebody was ordering mail-in ballots for various people in the community who hadn’t requested them,” said assistant city clerk Nicole Ludwig. “Although no ballots went out to this person, their response to it was to require people to pick up the ballots in person. So that was the option that Surrey went with, and it is included as an option for council’s consideration, if they so wish.”
Trentadue questioned if the mail-in ballots would be available to everyone, or if they would only be for residents who had some sort of illness or injury, or disability.
Until very recently, the Local Government Act has limited mail voting to people who have a physical disability, illness or injury that affects their ability to vote at another voting opportunity, and to people who expected to be away at the time of advance voting and on election day.
“In the most recent legislative session, the provincial government Introduced legislation to change that,” Ludwig explained. “It received royal assent on June 17. It allows anybody to apply for a mail-in ballot now.”
Later this year, staff will return to council with changes to the election procedures bylaw, which would allow mail-in voting. Council was not supportive of the idea of requiring in-person pickup of ballots.
“We should make mail-in voting as easy as possible,” Nakagawa said.
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