Mail In Ballot Will be Available for Cranbrook’s November 19th Municipal Election

Third reading and adoption was given to Elections Bylaw 3724 at Cranbrook’s July 18th meeting. This bylaw will enable those absent from the community of Cranbrook for the 2011 Municipal Election to mail in their ballot.

In the discussion concerning this new bylaw there was considerable debate around the table concerning the issue of the unlikely event of a tie between sixth and seventh place on council. Councillor Wavrecan was the only councillor to oppose the bylaw, which would see a draw take effect rather than a run off election between remaining candidates should that event occur. The rationale for the remaining council members decision appeared to revolve around the fact that in the event of a tie all remaining candidates would be placed back on a ballot thus creating a new election. The dynamics would thus change considerably and it was felt this would be unfair to those who tied. Another contributing factor to the decision appeared to be the time lapse, workload and cost of yet another election process to elect one councillor. The adopted bylaw therefore would see a draw between two candidates who in the unlikely event tie for the positions of sixth and seventh position.

In order to mail in a ballot, it must first be applied for and a resident may do this by either faxing, phoning or emailing the Returning Officer for a voting package which will be mailed to the resident. Packages are tentatively expected to be available by October 26th. Information regarding application for packages will apparently be available by early September. Residents should check Cranbrook’s Municipal website for details.
http://www.cranbrook.ca/

As the window for returning ballots will be very short, any resident who knows they will not be in Cranbrook for either the advance poll dates of Wednesday November 9th, Wednesday November 16th or the election day of Saturday November 19th, should apply for their voting package as soon as the information is made available in order to receive them at the earliest possible date.