Elections P.E.I. readies for 'fairly busy' fall with municipal, school board elections

Elections P.E.I. officialssay preparations are well underway for this fall's municipal elections.

Voters in Charlottetown, Stratford, Summerside, Cornwall and Three Rivers will head to the polls Monday, Nov. 7, with advance voting taking place Oct. 29, Oct. 31 and Nov. 4.

Elections P.E.I. has been preparing for these five municipal elections all of which have different bylaws and regulations for the last year and a half.

Paul Alan is manager of election operations and communications. He said it's a busy time with Elections P.E.I. also handling school trustee elections this fall.

"We will have an overlap of a few weeks between the school board elections and the municipal elections, so we're going to be fairly busy here between the firstof September and the end of November."

Alan said Elections P.E.I. is also looking ahead to the next provincial election.

"You always have to be election-ready. But we are already planning for a provincial election for next year," he said.

Looking for workers

Alan said Elections P.E.I. has already held multiple meetings with officers who haverun provincial and municipal elections in the past.

They're also on the search for appropriate office space for them. These are set to open the day after the Thanksgiving holiday.

"The big challenge ... sometimes is always trying to find the workers and we always seem to get a good turnout," Alan said.

"The returning officers will keep contact lists of workers they've had in the past to work either municipal or provincial elections. Now we are technology-based, whereas the other municipalities aren't ...so some of the challenges include some of the training to make sure everyone is well-versed how to run our program."

Encouraging more women to run in municipal elections

2 years ago

Duration 6:15

Sweta Daboo, executive director at P.E.I. Coalition for Women in Government, speaks with CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin about why it's important.

Other municipalities will also run their ownelections on Nov. 7.

Islanders can find more information on the municipal electionsincludingvotereligibility requirements and how to registeron the Elections P.E.I. website.

The school board elections will be done by mail-in ballots only. Information about those elections is also available on the website.