By Chris Lewis | June 6, 2021
Mount Pearl’s voters will have more voting options this coming election.
The municipal election is slated for September.
Like other municipalities, because of Covid-19, Mount Pearl is making plans to offer more voting options besides in-person vote casting at the ballot box.
At Tuesday’s public meeting, councillor Bill Antle said this election will feature mail-in voting for the first time.
In order for that to work, there were some things council needed to iron out.
The first of those was to approve the City’s entry into a four-year agreement with Datafix for the arrangement of an election management system. This will come at a cost of $41,700 plus HST.
“This will ensure that we can have in-person voting and mail-in voting,” Antle said.
Deputy Mayor Jim Locke questioned why it needs to be a four-year agreement.
City Clerk Mona Lewis explained a four-year agreement is not out of the ordinary.
The City, she said, maintains the voter list for four years in the event there is a by-election in between regular elections.
“We’d use the same voter list, and would need the same support that Datafix would provide,” she said.
Antle’s next motion regarded the dates for nomination of candidates. Nominations, Antle said, will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 24 and 25 from the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Lastly, making the third motion of the night, Antle put forward a motion following a recommendation from the corporate and economic development committee to hold an advance poll on Saturday, Sept. 18 from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The three motions carried unanimously.
