It is an election year in B.C., and Terrace council wants to make changes to voting rules before residents head to the polls this October.
At a Mar. 9 committee of the whole meeting, council discussed making multiple changes, such as allowing any eligible voter to vote by mail, increasing the required number of nominators for candidates, and attempting to increase voter engagement by looking into a KidVote program.
With the direction of council, city staff are set to prepare amendments to the Elections and Other Voting Procedures Bylaw. Current rules state that only people with a with a disability or people that will be away from Terrace during the election are eligible to vote by mail.
Staff were also told to look into upping the number of nominators for council candidates from two to 10 for council and 25 for mayoral candidates. The goal of that change is to discourage candidates from running if they are not serious about the job.
“I have to say at the last election when the Kool-Aid Man came out it felt like a mockery of our system, and I think it’s really prudent upon us to make sure we hold the bar high for this office,” Mayor Carol Leclerc said at the meeting.
“It’s major business that we’re doing, we’re running a $29 million corporation here and we need to make sure that good people are elected to the positions and consider the positions, and it’s not a joke.”
ALSO READ: Kool-Aid man to run for Terrace mayor
City staff will look into setting up a KidsVote program, which would allow children to cast mock ballots posing a child-friendly question alongside their parents to acquaint themselves with participation in elections.
Coun. Dave Gordon suggested that the city find ways to drive people to the area around polling stations as a way to increase voter turnout. He suggested offering free swimming at the aquatic centre, free skating at the Sportsplex or bringing in food trucks to the area.
“Some other event, colouring stations for kids, or just something that engages people and brings them in, and I think once you get families to the voting station they’ll vote and the kids will see them voting and it will become part of the family process,” he said.
The Terrace council byelection in 2021 — in which Gordon was elected — had a historically low turnout, with only nine per cent of eligible voters making the effort to cast a ballot at either advanced polls, by mail or at the main poll held at the Sportsplex.
ALSO READ: Dave Gordon wins Terrace byelection
In the 2018 election, 17 per cent of eligible people voted with 1,485 votes cast out of a pool of 8,359.
Council also discussed introducing a refundable deposit to the nomination requirement and adding a non-binding community interest question at the polls, but decided not to task staff with investigating those ideas.
The date of this year’s municipal election is Oct. 15, and staff will bring forward an amended elections bylaw for council to consider at a future meeting. Any changes to the city’s voting procedures bylaw need to be adopted at least 56 days before the election to take effect for this year’s vote.
READ MORE: Election 2018: City votes are in