Byelection Date Set But Lots Of Questions Remaining
What we know for sure is that on November 3rd, 2021 there will be a byelection to fill the vacated Mayor’s chair at Council.
What we don’t know is exactly how many polling stations there will be, will there be evening or early morning advance polls and will there be a second by-election for a councillor in the event a presently serving councillor runs and wins without first resigning their councillor seat?
Oh and to add to the questions a fourth wave of COVID - 19 is also looming out there.
Those are the questions that were left on the table following Council’s regular meeting on Monday evening.
And how it all pans out in the end is yet to be seen.
Addressing Council acting City Clerk Tracy Wittke laid out the rules for holding the by-election under the Local Government Election Act of 2015.
The Act states that at the next regular meeting of Council a date must be set for holding a byelection and the date must be within six months of the council member’s resignation (or death). The time span for the byelection in the recent resignation is August 19th, 2021 and February 19th, 2022, Wittke said.
“City Administration recommends the byelection be declared for Wednesday November 3rd 2021. A timeline of important dates would be established from this date. Wednesday September 15th would be the call for nominations Wednesday September 29th the filing of nomination papers,” she said.
The Act allows a municipal council the duty of dividing the polling areas into the number of areas it considers necessary.
“It should be noted that Council approved the revision to the polling locations for the 2020 election. I would also like to note that in a typical election year poll locations are booked a year in advance to ensure availability. This byelection is a short notice and to find two locations available at the same date was a challenge,” Wittke said adding that the Board Of Revision hearings being held at City Hall made it impossible to hold advance polls at City Hall.
Special mobile polls would not occur at care homes but would move to a mail in ballot where the ballot would be left for the administrator to provide to residents who chose to vote. Election staff would later return to pick up the ballots.
“Because of the pandemic we do not wish to have the most vulnerable in a compromised position,” she said. “Because we are not out of this pandemic we are really going to encourage mail in ballots.”
In the 2020 civic election “approximately 350 mail in ballots were received and processed and it is recommended mail in ballots be used for the 2021 byelection,” Wittke said.
Free transit on election day is something Wittke recommended to Council to approve and comes with a $1,300 price tag. Free transit on election day has been offered at every election since the 2016 civic election.
Based upon the recommendations Wittke told Council the estimated cost of the byelection - based upon Administration’s recommendations - would be about $60,000.
Since there would be no election in either the Catholic or the Public school divisions the total cost would be born by the City of Moose Jaw. Historically the City splits election costs with the two school divisions.
“Because there are no school board elections occurring this time around the City will bear 100 percent of the cost,” Wittke said.
She said the ultimate goal is to see as many people have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote.
Asked about making sure not only seniors’ care homes but other large apartments were given the ability to have mail-in ballots if they had an administrator Wittke said it was part of the plan to give more people the opportunity to vote.
“We are in an unprecedented time right at the moment and the ultimate goal is to have the democratic right to vote. So if someone does not feel like coming to a polling station we are really going to push the mail in vote.”
COUNCIL’S DISCUSSION
Acting Mayor Dawn Luhning asked about the possibility of having more than two polling stations.
“I actually thought we should have more than two polling stations for the byelection and I believe in convers(ation) Ms Wittke has some thoughts on that. Because I know that it (the 2020 civic election) worked OK other than the storm that we had. But I thought having four would be a good idea,” Acting Mayor Luhning said.
Wittke responded that there were problems to finding more polling locations that met the appropriate criteria.
“There has been several challenges with booking our polling locations. When we look at booking polling locations some of the things we look at are accessibility by transit, accessibility to those to get into the building that have challenges,” she said. “Also one of the the things we have run into is some of our go to locations that we are looking at are no longer halls to be able to book. Actually one has become a gym, a workout gym I should say.”
The City had looked at the Yara Centre and another location, she said.
On election night the Yara Centre is booked and revenue would be lost, parks and recreation director Derek Blais said.
It also needs to be noted the Yara Centre does not have a transit service and was denied one in the past due to the prohibitive cost.
School gyms cannot be used because of the COVID - 19 pandemic.
Acting Mayor Luhning then gave her reasoning for the need to have four and not the proposed two polling stations.
“Because the map we were provided breaks the city into four polls and it would be ideal if we could have a poll in each one of those locations. I mean Moose Jaw isn’t Edmonton or Vancouver where it is going to take you an hour to get somewhere but I certainly understand the accessibility issues and we have got to make sure it is easy for people to vote and get out and exercise their right to do that,” Luhning said.
Councillor Kim Robinson felt the cost of two additional polling stations would be minimal and that two additional polling stations could be added incrementally.
Councillor Heather Eby said she had heard from voters who were not happy they were limited to two voting locations - Moose Jaw Exhibition Company and Church Of Our Lady - in the 2020 civic election.
“People were not too happy they only had two places (to vote) I also think four would be great we could have one in each quadrant but again I understand why you are recommending two but…” Councillor Eby said.
Councillor Jamey Logan asked if the final motion, which was approved, could have the proviso there could be up to four polling locations if they could find two more suitable locations for election day.
The number of polling stations in the end will be a minimum of two and up to four, it all depends if suitable locations can be found.
“Right now I don’t know what polls we can locate however we will do our utmost best to find two other polling locations,” Wittke said.
POTENTIAL FOR SECOND BYELECTION
The atmosphere went political as Councillor Eby pointed out how provincial legislation allowed councillors to run for the vacant Mayor’s chair and at the same time not resign and risk their Council seat.
Provincial legislation allows councillors to run for a vacated Mayor’s chair without resigning their Council seat. If they win they are considered resigned from their councillor chair the day before the election.
“I don’t know if the public is aware of this or not, because I don’t think a lot of us were aware of it but in this byelection because any councillors for the mayor wanting to run for that position do not have to give up their seat to run,” she said, adding “this byelection, depending on the outcome who runs and wins could very easily trigger another byelection…it will put a financial burden on the city.”
“I think it is great a councillor can run for the position, and maybe everyone would want to, but I really feel like if you are going to run for the position you are all in.”
The raw footage and extended comments are in the video below.
Councillor Kim Robinson said he was a little bit dismayed by the thoughts of having to hold a byelection immediately after the byelection to select a Mayor if a councillor won.
“I thought it might trigger for a lack of a better word the first loser move into the councillor position if there is a councillor here that runs and is successfully elected as mayor,” Councilor Robinson said.
Acting Mayor Luhning said it was “good” for the residents to know that if a councillor wins and they do not resign their councillor chair first in time to be part of the byelection would trigger a second byelection.
“It is good for Moose Jaw to know there could be another byelection after this one. It is definitely good information to have,” she said.
Councillor Eby then said all councillors could run without risking anything and if all ran the simple solution was to resign first.
It was not however a solution for Councillor Robinson who said that Council depended on continuity and if councillors did that there was a potential for a new mayor and five new councillors.
In the end Council agreed to the 14 points presented by Administration on how to hold the election with one change that being there be an additional two polling stations if the two polling stations could be found.
POST COUNCIL PRESS QUESTIONS
At the post Council meeting press conference MJ Independent asked Acting Mayor Dawn Luhning about the lack of an evening advance poll.
The Acting Mayor said the situation was fluid and dynamic and despite Council’s vote the Returning Officer could add evening advanced polling.
“Actually now that you say it I never even thought about that maybe it should have been extended into the evening a little bit more….here is the thing a motion of Council is a motion of Council and it’s binding however the Clerk’s office could bring us something further to say OK we are going to open the poll for the evening or something like that. Because to me this is a fluid thing because also Council indicated we would like to see four polls rather than two and that is still coming, right?” she said going on to add she had asked about an early morning poll as well.
“So I made the enquiry this morning why the election day polls are not open at 8 in the morning because I recall they use to be open at 8 (am) in the morning and not at 9 (am) because I use to go and vote before work so it is a good question I never thought of that when we were discussing it.”
On the issue of the number of polling stations and their location we asked a question based upon just over 30 years ago civic elections had 18 polling stations compared to two today and if there are more polling stations should not one be on the north-east section of the city to allow more lower income people easier access to the polls?
“The offering of the transit is part of that. I mean I think the issue that we are providing the mail in ballots and going to those residences, you know the assisted living and the long term care facilities to help with those is going to be helpful in this. Nothing is perfect you know things have changed over the years in the way people are voting now. And we are still worried about what is going to happen with the pandemic in the next month or whatever. Which is what the Clerk’s office telegraphed. How is this going to effect things?” Acting Mayor Luhning replied to MJ Independent.