Concerned residents want voting changes
Citizens Assembly for Stronger Elections launches in St. John’s
A group of concerned citizens has banded together in an effort to make municipal elections more accessible, more diverse and more democratic.
The Citizens Assembly for Stronger Elections (CASE), chaired by lawyer Caitlin Urquhart, will present a list of recommendations to St. John’s city council and the provincial government on Thursday morning, outlining what they call practical ways to improve the democratic process in municipalities across the province.
Urquhart says the group is a diverse mix of people who want better representation in municipal government.
“There’s no one thread that ties everyone together other than having been involved in the recent municipal election in St. John’s,” said Urquhart.
“We wanted to make sure that the concerns and the barriers and challenges that we saw during the election campaign were brought back to the fore and were communicated to council. We wanted changes to be advocated for in a way that the changes could actually happen.”
A list of 19 calls to action will be presented to St. John’s city council, focusing on three key areas: improving access to voting, improving diversity of candidates and improving the democratic process.
On the point of access of voting, Urquhart says changing the election day is something municipalities across the province could do that would make it easier for the voter to cast an informed ballot.
“For anyone who has children in primary or secondary school, the idea of running for a campaign or even just educating yourself about the candidates in the first weeks of September creates a barrier,” said Urquhart.
“People are very cognizant of how busy that time of year is and they may not put their name forward or may not feel that they’re sufficiently educated about the candidates.”
Urquhart says that according to her research, this province is the only one that votes in September. Other jurisdictions more frequently vote in October or November.
Also on that note, Urquhart says post-secondary school is getting busy in September, making things more difficult for young people to get involved in what would often be their first municipal election.
The group also calls for a change in what methods are used to vote in municipalities. CASE calls for a change from the “first past the post” system to the ranked ballot system.
“Currently … there can be a need for strategic voting, where voters vote against their best interests or at least don’t vote for their preference in order to avoid a perceived threat,” said Urquhart.
“If we rank candidates, that creates an opportunity for new candidates to come forward that maybe wouldn’t have seen a space for themselves.”
The group wants municipalities to explore whether the mail-in ballot system has been working and whether online voting is the way to go in the future.
A website will be launched Thursday morning, and a news conference will outline the letter that will be presented to St. John’s city council.