Some residents of a newly-formed local government near Sussex are heading to the polls again.
Byelections for two council seats in Valley Waters have been scheduled for Monday, Feb. 13.
The entity includes the village of Norton and the local service districts of Springfield, Norton, Upham, Kars and Wickham.
The vote comes less than three months after local government elections took place in late November.
Error led to need for byelections
Paul Harpelle, director of communications for Elections NB, said an error was made in Ward 2 when the entity was created.
“One of the wards in Valley Waters did not have the proper number of council positions created. There should have been two, but there was only one created,” Harpelle said in an interview.
The error was only discovered when the November election was underway and could not be fixed at that time, he said.
Legislative changes were brought forward that allowed for the creation of a second council position in Ward 2, which Harpelle said is needed due to the size of the population base.
Meanwhile, the vacancy in nearby Ward 3 remained after the Nov. 28 election as no one came forward to run, he said.
“The chief electoral officer determined that if we were going to be holding the byelection in Ward 2 then she would, at the same time, try and hold a byelection to fill the vacancy in Ward 3,” said Harpelle.
Nomination period now open
Candidates can submit their nomination papers starting Monday, Jan. 9. The deadline to do so is at 2 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20.
Harpelle encouraged candidates not to wait until the last minute to get their nomination papers in.
“Sometimes it feels like the candidates want to see what the field of competition looks like and they sit on their nomination papers,” he said.
“If they came in at the 11th hour and there was an error of some kind, they wouldn’t necessarily have enough time to go out and correct that mistake.”
Voter fatigue
With voters heading to the polls for the second time in weeks, Harpelle said voter fatigue is definitely a concern for them.
Local government elections historically draw lower voter turnout compared to provincial and federal elections.
“We hope the wish to have a representative in their ward will override that and encourage people to take the time to go and cast that ballot,” said Harpelle.
In addition to voting day on Feb. 13, one day of advance voting will take place on Saturday, Feb. 4.
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