Though not all municipalities have cast their ballots, Elections New Brunswick is pleased with the relative lack of issues reported on election day.
All regions except for Edmundston-Madawaska voted Monday, and results will be revealed after polls close in that region on May 25.
Paul Harpelle, Elections NB’s director of communications, says other than a few reports of social distancing issues at polling stations, they received few complaints Monday.
“Considering all the hurdles, all the challenges that came with this event, this organization is very pleased that we were able to deliver this election, now the next thing we have to do is deliver the results,” he said.
Harpelle says the municipal election, originally slated for spring 2020, dealt the organization a number of ‘curveballs’ over the past 14 months.
“This was an election that threw many different kinds of curveballs: first of all it was delayed by a year,” he said, referring to the COVID-19-induced delay last spring. “Then, we get the restart and we have a region of the province go in lockdown, which changed the date of the results reporting.
“Then we had a change in rules for people that were in modified self-isolation, those that were being put into hotel self-isolation. That was another curveball making sure these people didn’t lose their opportunity to vote.”
Kennebecasis Valley self-isolation
One last minute plot twist came after a large number of residents in Rothesay, Quispamsis and Hampton, were forced to self-isolate due to COVID-19 cases discovered at local schools over the weekend.
Harpelle says they were contacted by many electors and candidates in the Kennebecasis Valley, asking how they could vote after being unexpectedly stuck at home.
In order to get ballots out to all would-be voters, Elections N.B. dispatched crews to hand deliver ballots to residents throughout the Kennebecasis Valley and Hampton area.
Four crews hit the road with a map and addresses to offer contactless ballot delivery to 115 houses across the region.
“It really was an unusual circumstance that required changing on the fly and the crew did an exceptional job to try and ensure as many of those people had that chance to vote,” said Harpelle.
He says some of the houses requested multiple ballots, with up to four voters self-isolating in at least one of the 115 residences.
“The returning office that serves the Kings/Queens area essentially went above and beyond the call of duty to try and accommodate as many electors in possible that were in self-isolation.”
In order to ensure everyone who requested a ballot was able to vote, the municipal electoral officer used their authority to extend voting hours past the 8 p.m. cutoff.
“In most occasions the rules are if an elector is in lineup to vote at a polling station, they are given an opportunity to vote,” Harpelle said.
The electoral officer deemed voters who requested a ballot before 8 p.m. as having entered a ‘virtual queue,’ allowing them to extend the deadline and reach more voters.
Downtick in turnout
Though final counts will not be known until the Edmundston-Madawaska region has their chance to vote May 25, Harpelle did say he expects the 2021 elections would see a downtick in turnout from 45 per cent in 2016.
He credits the drop-off to general COVID-19 anxieties, especially with the rise in variants around the province.
“Even before you put a pandemic into the equation, what we’ve seen in the past, the turnout for these municipal elections tends to be softer than what we’ve seen in provincial or federal elections,” said Harpelle.
“But you throw a pandemic into the equation, add into that the arrival of COVID-19 variants, and it’s understandable there were some electors out there who were nervous no matter what measures we put in place at the polling stations.”