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City continues preparations for Nov. election

The City of Yorkton continues to prepare for this fall’s municipal election including the unanimous acceptance of a new General Election Bylaw by Council at its regular meeting Monday.
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The City of Yorkton continues to prepare for this fall’s municipal election including the unanimous acceptance of a new General Election Bylaw by Council at its regular meeting Monday.

“At the Regular Meeting of Council on June 22, Council provided direction for a General Election Bylaw. In the past, most of this content was present in existing bylaws, and some of that content remains unchanged,” explained Jessica Matsalla Director of Legislation & Procedures, with the City.

However, due to the inclusion of some new content, and because these bylaws affect one another, instead of doing several amending bylaws it was sensible to combine everything into one General Election Bylaw, she noted.

New to the bylaw in the Candidates Disclosure of Campaign Interests, which is to ensure a fair, transparent campaign is run by all candidates, said Matsalla.

“This part of the Bylaw is not new to the Act, but Yorkton is only one of four in the Province that has chosen to exercise this,” she said, adding the other cities are Saskatoon, Regina and Estevan.

The bylaw also provides for and establishes a Mail-In Ballot Process.

A Mail-In Ballot is used for voters who anticipate not being able to vote in an Advance Poll, or Regular Poll on Election Day, said Matsalla.

Regulations have been relaxed so that a Council could permit other persons besides election officials to witness applications for Mail-In Ballots and verify identification, including doctors, lawyers, postmasters and others.

Election Advertisement and Distribution thereof for Candidates are included in the bylaw.

“This gives us more ‘teeth’ in regulating fair campaign advertising and adherence to our Sign Bylaw, as we have now included imposing fines for infractions,” said Matsalla, adding fines have been added to deter contravention and penalize those who do not comply.

Procedures on Homebound Polls are also new to the bylaw. It “defines a clear process for conducting Homebound Polling for those residents who are Homebound, and if applicable, their resident caregivers,” said Matsalla.

This is not new to the Act, but including it in the bylaw outlines a clear process. The utmost of care will be taken should there be applicants for this, in light of COVID, stated the report to Council.

Matsalla noted the two key changes are;

*The inclusion of the Disclosure of Campaign Interests Part of the Bylaw. The two main components are putting a cap on the amount that you can spend, and the requirement to manage what you spend, and disclose what that amount is. We are one of four cities in the Province that will practice this.

You may ask, why fix something that is not broken? The answer is transparency and to be proactive before an issue arises. All candidates should be aware that from the outset, involvement in local government requires openness and transparency. Public servants, including elected officials, are subjected to what some may consider as an invasion of privacy with publication of salaries, statute and policies that require disclosure of private interests, nomination papers, and public conduction of most transactions.

*The ability for Council to permit other “external verifiers” for the Mail-In Ballot application. This is a pivotal point in the Election process. It is exciting to see progress in becoming more modernized in our processes. Many of the election survey requested online voting ... Currently, the law requires us to have a paper ballot, however I am confident that it is certainly something that will be reviewed in the future. As we are respectful of current practices, and the reasons they are in place, we will continue to explore ways to improve voting for the future.