PORT HOOD: Before the new councillor for District 2 is elected tomorrow, Inverness Municipal Council discussed voting options.
Returning Officer Tanya Tibbo said at the last meeting, council requested this topic be discussed.
“There was concern that voting by telephone and internet was not ideal,” she told council. “We have 718 people vote which is just over 40 per cent. More than 10 per cent of electors voted today so the votes are coming in swiftly. The last special election we had 59 per cent of electors vote.”
During the regular monthly meeting of council yesterday in Port Hood, Tibbo said the municipality received more than 150 calls from residents.
“The majority that are calling are saying how easy it is to vote; it literally takes 35 to 40 seconds,” she noted. “For anyone who hasn’t received their voter PIN (personal identification number) in the mail, we printed off copies of them and delivered them to their homes.”
Inverness County said individual voter instruction letters were mailed to each voter who is on the amended voters’ list and included a unique PIN, as well as full details on how to access the system.
In response to a comment from Warden Bonny MacIsaac, Tibbo noted that the municipality set up a computer at the Coady Thompkins Memorial Library in Margaree Forks to allow people to vote.
District 1 Alfred Poirier said he has heard that some people were unable to make their mark.
Tibbo replied that some birth dates were recorded incorrectly by Elections Nova Scotia numerators.
“The problem with the birthdays is that the province is storing them incorrectly. So they’re reversing the month and day for some of them,” she explained. “When they’re calling us, we correct them in the system, and at the end of the election, that list is sent to Elections Nova Scotia so that when we do have the next election, they are corrected.”
According to the municipality, electronic voting (telephone and internet) will the only means of voting for the special election on Saturday.
Voting started on May 24 and will run 24 hours a day until the close of the polls on election day at 7 p.m., the municipality said, noting there will be no paper ballots for this election.
The municipality added that electors requiring assistance with telephone or internet voting should call the Voter Help Line at 902-787-2274.
The candidates for district 2 are Alfred Aucoin, Shaun Bennett, John Carmichael, Seph Peters, Blair W. Phillips, and Rob Romard.