FORT FRANCES—Voters in the Jan. 14 municipal election will have more flexibility as to when they can cast their ballots after town council passed a bylaw Tuesday night to use the vote-by-mail method.
Council had passed a bylaw to hold a byelection to fill a vacancy on council at its Oct. 22 meeting, but at that time it was undecided at to whether they would go with a traditional voting system or the mail-in ballots like in the last two elections.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, Clerk Glenn Treftlin said he’s been in further discussion with the company DataFix, and determined using a traditional voting system would cost about $12,000 while vote-by-mail would cost between $15,000-16,000.
Council unanimously approved the bylaw to use the vote-by-mail system.
Coun. Paul Ryan said he was “totally in favour” of the vote-by-mail system. Mayor Roy Avis agreed, adding the town shouldn’t change the process that was used in the 2006 election.
Coun. Andrew Hallikas said he felt the mail-in system was the right one, as his “main concern is that the maximum number of people are able to vote.”
Treftlin noted that before the town switched to using mail-in ballots, voter turnout was around 40 percent, but since then has been a little over 60 percent.
Now that council approved using the vote-by-mail system, Treftlin said he’ll contact DataFix and the mail-in ballots will be sent out to the electorate as soon as possible after nominations close Nov. 30.
He added the town will promote how to use the mail-in system immediately after Nov. 30 to give people as much time as possible to get their ballots in.
With the mail-in system, voters can send their ballots in as soon as they get them—even several weeks before election day.
Treftlin noted a new feature that will be promoted once ballots are sent out is that the public will be able to go online to see if they’re on the voting list.
In related news, no one has put in their name yet to run for the vacant council on Jan. 14.
A person may put their name forward to run for council by filing a nomination form with the clerk’s office in person or by an agent up until Nov. 30.
There is a $100 fee.
The term of office is the remainder of the four-year term of the current council, which ends Nov. 30, 2010.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
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