Duane Hicks
The Civic Centre will be a busy place on Monday as the municipal election wraps up.
As of the end of Wednesday, the town had received 2,240 ballots, or about 41 percent of the total eligible.
If ballot returns continue as they are, it’s possible they’ll eclipse the provincial average, which typically has been just under 50 percent in recent municipal elections.
Local voters who haven’t cast their ballot yet are urged to fill out their voting kits and bring them to the Civic Centre in person.
The ballot return station will continue to be set up in council chambers from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on Monday
“If you have not received a voter kit, you must present yourself with appropriate I.D. [name/address], fill out and sign a form, and then a voter kit will be provided,” noted town clerk and returning officer Lisa Slomke.
The town once again will be using electronic tabulators to tally the votes.
Election staff will start working in the counting centre at 2 p.m. on Monday, opening the ballot sealed envelopes and putting them in piles of 50.
Then around 4 p.m., they’ll start feeding them through the tabulators.
The very last box will be brought to them from the ballot return centre when it closes at 8 p.m.
The results are stored on memory cards. When election staff is done feeding all the ballots through the two tabulators, the memory cards are taken from each machine.
Slomke then will tabulate the combined results and prepare a preliminary list of results, which will be posted in council chambers.
They also will be posted on the town’s website (www.fort-frances.com) before she leaves that night.
The public is welcome to attend council chambers on election night.
Candidates and scrutineers will be permitted in the counting centre if they so choose, but only one scrutineer per candidate.
