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Elections NB

ENB-Pre-election Mailer (E).pdf

N.B. municipal election race officially underway

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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.

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Time is almost up to run for municipal council

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Hard deadlines today for those wanting to run in the upcoming municipal or local school board elections.

Your nomination papers must be submitted no later than 2 pm on Friday, April 10.

Elections NB Chief Electoral Officer Kim Poffenroth says it’s not unusual for New Brunswickers to wait until the last minute in municipal elections to submit their nomination paperwork to get their name on the ballot.

Several new names were added to the candidates’ lists just this week.

You can visit the Elections NB website to see who is running.

Election day is May 11.

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Deadline to run in N.B. municipal elections is April 10

If you are thinking of running in the upcoming municipal election in New Brunswick, time is running out.

“You need to get a nomination paper completed and submitted to the local returning officer before 2 p.m. on April 10th. The nomination kits can be downloaded from the Elections New Brunswick website. On that paper, the instructions are quite clear, but you need to fill in information about yourself, the contest you want to compete in, and most importantly, you need at least 10 nominators who are eligible to vote in the contest in which you are running,” Kim Poffenroth, Elections NB Chief Electoral Officer, explained.

Those who want to run for local government must be 18 years of age and a Canadian citizen. They must also be living in the municipality for at least six months where they want to run as a candidate. If they are running as a Ward councillor, they must be living in that ward on the day they file nomination papers.

Poffenroth added that it is not unusual for New Brunswickers to wait until the last minute to file, especially in municipal elections. “It’s a little less common in provincial elections. I think it’s because people are waiting to see who else is running, is there going to be a vacancy, is there going to be a need for an election?”

She also encouraged not waiting until the last minute, because of the very hard deadline. If your nomination papers are even one minute late to the returning officer on April 10, they won’t be accepted.

“There’s no flexibility there,” Poffenroth added.

So what happens if the deadline comes and goes, and positions remain vacant on municipal councils and District Education Councils?

Poffenroth explained that if there are no candidates or not enough, a byelection will need to be held, likely in October or November.

“For District Education Councils and for Advisory Committees for the rural districts, in those cases, the minister is responsible, so either the Minister of Education or the Minister of Local Government will appoint people to those positions,” Poffenroth stressed.

Many people will also be elected by acclamation if no one else puts their name forward to run against them.

“Your Mayors and Councillors, these people are making decisions about matters that affect voters on a day-to-day basis. We’re talking about policing and fire services, parks and recreation and property taxes. So these are things that I think are really important to New Brunswickers. Knowing that your views are represented and that there are people who will advocate for your community on all these kinds of important issues. It’s really important that you have an opportunity to express your opinion about who you want on those councils,” Poffenroth spelled out.

She also expressed that it’s important people participate, shape and give back to their communities in the way they want to see them move forward over the next four years.

Voters will cast their ballots on May 11.