Six polling stations in New Brunswick opened late for local government elections on Monday because of technical problems, chief electoral officer Kim Poffenroth said.
Poffenroth said three of the polling stations are in the Grand Falls area and three are in the Shediac-Memramcook area.
She said all of those polling stations are now open and will stay open later for the same amount of time they were delayed in opening. Polling stations are open for 10 hours regardless of when they open, she said.
These were the stations getting a late start:
- Amazing Grace Church in Grand Falls opened at 1:40 p.m. and will close at 11:40 p.m.
- Club de l’Âge d’Or in Grand Falls opened at 12:30 p.m. and will close at 10:30 p.m.
- Église Saint-Georges in Grand Falls opened at 11 a.m. and will close at 9 p.m.
- Centre Communautaire de Haute-Aboujagane in Haute-Aboujagane opened at 11:40 a.m. and will close at 9:40 p.m.
- Centre Culturel de Cormier-Village in Cormier-Village opened at 1:20 p.m. and will close at 11:20 p.m.
- Centre de Saint-André LeBlanc in Saint-André LeBlanc opened at 11:30 p.m. and will close at 9:30 p.m.
Most polls in the province opened at 10 a.m. and will close at 8 p.m. on Monday.
Poffenroth said the problem that delayed some openings was with the software that strikes voters off of the elector list and ensures the same person doesn’t vote twice.
“There’s no way of keeping track of who has actually voted and who’s entitled to vote,” Poffenroth said Monday afternoon. “So that’s the first step in the voting process at every polling location.”
She said the issue wasn’t noticed until the first voters arrived.
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Here’s how you can cast your ballot on municipal election day
Monday is election day in New Brunswick, and voters will elect representatives in almost all 77 municipalities, 12 rural districts and 11 district education council seats.
New Brunswickers are choosing mayors, councillors and representatives for rural districts and district education councils.
Voters will elect representatives in almost all 77 municipalities and 12 rural districts for the first time since local governments were reformed in 2023.
Poffenroth said the easiest way to find the right place to vote is the Elections New Brunswick website.
Anyone who doesn’t have access to the website can call 1-888-858-8683 and someone will find out where you can go to vote.
Voters can also cast their ballot at any returning office in the province no matter what municipality they’re in.
“If you haven’t voted yet and you’re from Moncton and you happen to be in Fredericton working for the day … you can go into the Fredericton returning office and vote for your candidates in Moncton,” Poffenroth said.
Elections N.B. signs are up on local government election day in New Brunswick. The Crossman Community Centre in Moncton is busy with voters casting their ballots from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Victoria Walton/CBC)
Voters can also find information on their voter information card which they may have received in the mail. If you didn’t receive a card, you can find eligibility information and identification requirements on the Elections New Brunswick website.
The site says 18-year-old Canadian citizens who are permanently living in the province for at least 40 days before the election can vote. You also have to be living in the electoral district, local government or school district on election day.
Poffenroth said there are also a variety of accessibility options for voters as well.
There is curbside voting where polling station staff can bring your ballot out to you. There are also devices to help people who can’t read their ballot or can’t select a candidate with a marker.
Those accessibility options are available at returning offices, which can be found on the Elections New Brunswick website.
Thousands have already cast their ballot
Poffenroth said that as of about 11:30 a.m. Monday, about 20,000 people had voted after polls opened.
That makes a total of over 110,000 who’ve cast ballots so far since April 20, which is more than 20 per cent of those eligible.
Some of those voters made their way to the Nashwaaksis Baptist Church polling station on Fredericton’s north side, where voting was running smoothly.
“I was in there probably less than five minutes. … Lots of people are here voting, don’t get me wrong, but the lines are going really fast, really smooth,” said Whitney Brewer.
Brewer and a few others, including Kirk MacLeod, said homelessness was a top issue in this election.
“Help the community grow, be safer, address the homeless issue, I think is a big concern … how we do that with compassion and grace. So those are kind of the issues that were on my mind moving forward,” MacLeod said.
Results won’t be too late
Once electors cast their ballots and polls close Elections New Brunswick officials will begin tabulating votes, and Poffenroth said it shouldn’t be a late night for waiting to hear election results.
She said the earliest results could come in 10 minutes after polls close and as late as 10 p.m., depending on the polling station.
There is a results section on the Elections New Brunswick website where people can find the results of all the contests.
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The results page shows candidates for each position and candidates who have already been elected by acclamation.
Poffenroth said there are instances of acclamation across the province, which is when there are the same number of candidates and seats resulting in no contest.
Kim Poffenroth, the chief electoral officer for the province, said voters won’t have to stay up too late on Monday night to see results. She said some results will come in just after polls close at 8 p.m. (Shane Fowler/CBC)
She said roughly 33,000 voters won’t have a ballot to fill out on Monday due to acclamation or no candidates running in their voting area.
Some of those voters are in McAdam, where all of its councillors and mayor were acclaimed.
If you received a voter information card in an area with a vacancy or no contest, the card should say that there is no election.
In other jurisdictions, the ballot could be full of candidates.
“In some areas certain contests aren’t on the ballot because either the candidate was acclaimed or no candidates were running,” said Poffenroth.
“In other cases, it’s a very full ballot, and I use the example of Miramichi because it has a very full ballot with 24 candidates running for eight at-large positions and five candidates for mayor.”
Byelection will happen soon after election
For any places with vacancies there will be a byelection on June 22 to fill those seats.
The byelection will also elect candidates in Grand Lake’s Ward 2 and Ward 3 in Saint Andrews after candidates died during the respective election campaigns.
There are also some vacant district education council seats that will be filled by ministerial appointment, according to Elections N.B. spokesperson Paul Harpelle.
Only 11 of the 68 district education council seats will be on Monday’s ballots with Anglophone North not having any seats to vote on.
