Elections NWT will help run Yellowknife’s municipal election

This fall, for the first time, Elections NWT will help run Yellowknife’s municipal and school board elections.

Elections NWT is tasked with running a territorial election every four years and any by-elections in between. Increasingly, its staff think it can do more with its expertise.

“Internally, we started having some discussions about what can we do to better support local authorities in running their elections,” said chief electoral officer Stephen Dunbar.

“That led to a longer discussion with the City of Yellowknife. We’ve been having that discussion for a little over a year – what a partnership could do in terms of the city election.”

When Yellowknifers vote in the next municipal election this October, Elections NWT will handle the list of voters and support administration of the vote itself. The city remains responsible for funding the election and communicating it to residents.

YK1 and Yellowknife Catholic Schools elections will also be supported by Elections NWT, which Dunbar said should help voters cast ballots more smoothly on the day.

“For making sure you’re on the voters list, it’s a one-stop inquiry. If you need a special voting opportunity – a mail-in ballot or a mobile poll – it’s one application,” he said.

“When you go to vote on election day, you’ll be handed two ballots but from one election officer. You fill out each ballot and they’ll both go into the same tabulator and those results will get reported. It’s not three separate organizations running the election.”

Yellowknife city manager Stephen Van Dine said Elections NWT handling the voters list would relieve the city clerk’s office of a “labour-intensive, cumbersome and antiquated” task.

“There may not be a lot of visible changes for the voter, but it makes things administratively more straightforward,” Van Dine said.

According to Van Dine, bringing in Elections NWT will not come at extra cost to taxpayers.

“There’s no additional cost. I’d even go further … we may actually have some savings in staff time,” he said.

“We’re hoping the process goes smoothly and the impact on the clerk’s office will actually be a saving of time, allowing us to focus on other city business.”

Dunbar said Elections NWT had previously provided “limited support” to some local authorities and school boards – a voters list or some ballot boxes and voting screens – but this fall’s municipal and school board elections will be a more meaningful pilot project.

“We’re happy to support the city. We want to see what some of the outcomes are. I certainly see benefits for Elections NWT in assisting with this election,” he said.

“The best opportunity to test some of our processes and some of the improvements we’ve made since the last territorial election is by running an election.

“If we only run an election every four years – because we have very few by-elections – [there is less of] an opportunity to really test some of our processes and make those adjustments and fine tuning.”

He added anyone interested in helping to make October’s elections happen should get in touch.