While there will be two locations where residents can vote during the mayoral byelection, some city council members would like to see more places where voters can cast their ballots.
The byelection is set for Wednesday, Nov. 3, and the two polling locations will be at the exhibition centre and Church of Our Lady on South Hill. The exhibition grounds will be a “super poll” with three places to cast a ballot.
The need for more polling locations arose during council’s Aug. 23 meeting while discussing how the byelection will operate.
Acting Mayor Dawn Luhning thought two voting locations worked well during the 2020 municipal election — aside from a snowstorm that day — but thought four places would be better considering city hall split the city into four quadrants. However, she understood that the city clerk’s office faced challenges finding venues on such short notice.
There have been difficulties securing polling locations, especially since locations need to be accessible by transit and physically accessible for people with mobility issues, said acting city clerk Tracy Wittke. Another issue is that some locations are now taking bookings — one hall turned into a gym — while the city clerk’s office needs to confirm locations by Aug. 25.
YaraCentre could be available on Nov. 3, but it is already booked that evening, said parks and recreation director Derek Blais. That would mean cancelling rentals and losing revenue.
“Moose Jaw isn’t Edmonton or Vancouver where it takes an hour to get somewhere,” said Luhning. “But I understand accessibility issues, (while) we need to … ensure people can get out to exercise their right to vote.”
Coun. Heather Eby understood why city administration wanted a super poll on the exhibition grounds since it made sense on paper. However, during the 2020 municipal election, voters were not happy with only two places to vote. She also wanted to see a polling station in each area of the city.
Another concern that Eby had about the byelection was that any councillor could run for the mayoral position and did not have to give up his or her seat during the process.
She thought that if councillors ran, a council seat should open and a byelection for that seat would also occur. However, that’s not the case, which means depending upon the outcome of this byelection and who wins, another byelection could occur in February to fill a councillor’s seat.
“I don’t understand the wisdom of that in The Cities Act. It puts a financial burden on the city,” Eby said. “It’s hard to get good voter turnout in one byelection. What are you going to get three months later?”
All council members could run for the mayor’s spot since there would not be any fear of losing their seat if they didn’t win, she added.
It would not be possible to add a councillor byelection onto the mayoral byelection because there would have to be staggered candidate nomination deadlines for mayor, Luhning pointed out. She didn’t know how to get around that problem but thought it was important for residents to know they could head to the polls three months after this byelection.
As part of the overall motion that council approved for the operations of the mayoral byelection, city administration was encouraged to find two more polling locations if possible.
If a byelection for a councillor’s seat is held in 2022, that would mean Moose Jaw would have had seven elections — whether municipal or byelection — since 2009.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Sept. 13.
