N.B. municipal election race officially underway
There could be some door knockers in your future, now that nomination papers are in for the May 11 municipal elections.
A total of 1211 New Brunswickers overall have entered the electoral race.
“There are 384 contested positions in the province for Councillors, 136 are acclaimed. There are 77 positions for Mayor, 52 have contests, and 25 are acclaimed. For Rural District Advisory Committees, there are 40 positions; 26 are acclaimed, and four remain vacant. Of the 68 District Education Council positions, 11 have contests, 39 are acclaimed, and there are 18 vacancies,” New Brunswick Chief Electoral Officer Kim Poffenroth explained to our newsroom.
“For those municipalities with councillor positions without candidates, or if two are required and they only have one candidate, those positions will be left vacant until byelections are held in October or November,” Poffenroth added.
In the case of District Education Councils or Rural Advisory Committees, the Minister of Education or Local Government will fill those vacancies with someone they appoint.
The deadline to withdraw from the race is April 13 at 5 pm.
A full list of all of the candidates can be found on the Elections NB website. Voter cards are expected to start arriving in the mail by the end of the month.
Advance polls will be held on May 2 and 4, or you can vote at returning offices across the province at any other time.
“But you cannot vote in the returning office until the ballots are available, which should be by the beginning of next week on April 20th,” Poffenroth added.
If you are new to the province or you do not receive a voter card, you should bring ID or documentation that contains three things. Your name, signature and the civic address where you live.
“We always tell people that the best thing to bring is your New Brunswick driver’s license, because it has all of that information, but you can use a combination of different forms of ID or documentation. You can bring a lease or a utility bill with your name and address on it, and then your New Brunswick Medicare card that will have your name and your signature. So as long as it has that combination of information,” Poffenroth stated.
If you’re unsure exactly where you should be voting, visit the Elections NB website, and you can type in your postal code, and it’ll tell you the address of your polling station.
