New Legislation To Suspend Municipal Voting During Lockdown

New Brunswick’s municipal electoral officer may soon have more power in the event of a COVID-19 lockdown during the municipal elections on May 10.

Proposed legislation introduced last week would allow for the suspension of candidate nominations and voting in a health zone should there be a lockdown.

Local Government Minister Daniel Allain said they hope to never have to use this legislation, but it is best to be prepared just in case.

“It was clear to us with the arrival of the variant in our province that we need to ensure there is a clear process in place to temporarily suspend candidate nominations and voting should a lockdown be required,” Allain said in a news release.

The proposed legislation also provides direction to the municipal electoral officer for restarting the election and a timeline for doing so once a lockdown is lifted.

Reporting results from other health zones would also be halted until all electors provincewide had voted and the results had been tabulated.

Kim Poffenroth, the province’s municipal electoral officer, said delaying the reporting of results until all voting is completed is necessary.

That is because the boundaries for district education councils and regional health authorities do not align with the public health zones, and electors are able to cast a ballot for their local elections from any returning office in the province.

Legislation passed last December gave the municipal electoral officer the flexibility to adapt or modify certain voting procedures, but did not include the ability to suspend voting.