Voting confusion prompts call to delay elections for newly formed N.B. communities

A mailing mix-up and concerns about the usability of Elections New Brunswick's website has at least one eligible voter calling for a delay of the upcoming municipal elections for several newly amalgamated communities.

Wendy Rogers of Nasonworth should have received a letter in the mail at the beginning of the month informing her she's eligible to vote for a mayor and seven councillors for what will become the community of Sunbury-York South.

Instead, the letter she and other eligible voters were supposed to receive about the Nov. 28 elections went to residents in areas where no upcoming election is scheduled.

Making things more confusing, her household and thousands of others where eligible voters reside received letters falsely saying elections weren't scheduled for their communities.

Rogers said Elections N.B. never sent follow-up letters to her and her neighbours to correct the mistake, and she only found out about the election "by accident" when chatting with a neighbour last week.

Now she thinks Elections N.B. should push back the election for her community and the 61 others that were recently formed as part of sweeping local government reforms implemented by Local Government Minister Daniel Allain.

"For a good democracy, people have to be aware of elections, they have to be able to solicit good candidates and know where to vote, and none of those things are happening," said Rogers, speaking on CBC's Information Morning Fredericton.

Even closer than the election date is the deadline for candidates to register, which is Oct. 28 at 2 p.m.

Rogers said she worries all the confusion could weaken the pool of candidates who run, given many residents might not have had adequate time to weigh the decision.

"The problem is you can't just decide," said Rogers, when asked whether she plans to run.

"Like, I have a lot of commitments coming up in the next six months to a year and I don't know, I would really want to find out more about how this works."

The province has already said it wants the new mayors and councillors in their roles by Jan. 1, 2023, however Rogers thinks that goal should have been revised once it was known Elections N.B. incorrectly informed residents.

"I think once the false information was mailed out, that was the death knell for that Jan.1 deadline.

"So they might have wanted that deadline but … if they insist on sticking to that they are going to have a whole bunch of unfilled positions."

Decision to delay not with Elections N.B.

The mailing of incorrect election information is a mistake Elections N.B. is sorry it made, said Kim Poffenroth, chief electoral officer

However, moving to delay the elections isn't a call she can make, she said.

"That would be a government decision because the date is in legislation," said Poffenroth, speaking on Information Morning Fredericton.

"It's certainly not something that has been raised with me as something that's being considered."

Poffenroth said with the election date still in place, her office is now working hard to undo the confusion by taking out newspaper and digital ads and speaking with as many media outlets as possible to share accurate information.

She said information about the communities voting in new councils can be found at electionsnb.ca, along with information about how to register as a candidate and where to vote.

She said anyone with questions can also contact their call centre at 1-888-858-8683.

Poffenroth said as of Thursday some municipalities had enough candidates registered to trigger elections, while others didn't have enough candidates registered to fill some seats.

"And from, you know, our most recent look at our list, that seems to be the largest problem for those rural district advisory committees," said Poffenroth, referring to the 12 rural districts that are replacing the local service district model.

Concerns about website

Rogers said she's tried using the website and found it difficult to navigate.

One portal allows residents to enter their civic address to find out which entity they're included in. Rogers said she entered her home address in Nasonworth, and the site told her no information could be found.

"So the website is definitely not user friendly," she said.

She said one of the issues is she was never formally told what the new name given to her entity was, meaning she had to comb through maps to find out.

"Nobody ever notified me. I just thought, OK, we're Entity 63 now, and I heard things on the news about other places voting to choose a new name, and that never happened with us."