Mail-in ballots slightly delayed

FORT FRANCES—After a one-day delay earlier this week, Fort Frances residents should start receiving their mail-in ballot packages Thursday for the Nov. 13 municipal election.
Originally slated to be sent out Monday, town clerk Glenn Treftlin, who also is the local returning officer for this election, explained the mail-in ballot packages actually didn’t get mailed out until Tuesday.
“I’m expecting they should be in mailboxes today [Thursday],” he added, noting that although he was told of the reason for the slight delay, Treftlin didn’t want to place blame for it.
“It was out of our control. We had no way of controlling it,” he remarked.
The package voters will receive in the mail includes a ballot, a white privacy envelope, and a larger, yellow envelope which is postage paid if mailed in Canada.
Using the kits is easy and there is a set of instructions included, said Treftlin.
Just fill out your ballot and put it in the white envelope. Then fill out a voter declaration form stating you are the person who’s supposed to be voting with that ballot.
Then put both the white envelope and the voter declaration into the yellow one, seal it, and mail it. These can be sent in as soon as the voter chooses.
If eligible voters do not receive their kits prior to Oct. 30, or some information in their mail-in ballot package is wrong, contact Treftlin or assistant returning officer Lori Pattison at the Civic Centre (274-5323).
Treftlin said Canada Post has promised to have all the mail-in ballots in its system delivered to the town by Nov. 13. But he recommended voters don’t mail in ballots after Nov. 3 if they don’t have to.
Those who choose to wait until after Nov. 3 instead are encouraged to fill out their voting packages and bring them to the Civic Centre in person.
Treftlin noted there will be staff there to accept ballots from Nov. 6-13.
Those who do vote this way, however, still must follow procedure and fill out the mail-in package as if they were sending it in the post.
As previously reported, the town will be using an electronic voting tabulator this election, meaning the results should be known shortly after 8 p.m. on Nov. 13.
(Fort Frances Daily Bulletin)