Heading to the polls? Voting tips for election day
After weeks of debates, door-knocking and campaign promises, the election is finally in the home stretch with 570,000 New Brunswickers eligible to vote.
Polls open at 10 a.m. and close at 8 p.m., and Kim Poffenroth, New Brunswick's chief electoral officer, has some tips for getting in and out of the voter booth smoothly.
If you received your voter information card — bring it
Poffenroth says if you have your card "you'll be processed much more quickly at the polls."
"If you haven't received a voter information card... you can go onto the electionsnb.ca website and find out where your polling location is," she said.
"You can also contact your local returning office to find out where you would be voting."
No card? No problem.
If you don't have a voter information card, you can still vote, said Poffenroth.
You should head to your polling station and bring identification that includes your name, signature and your civic address.
"If you haven't received the card probably err on the side of caution and bring that kind of identification. It could be a drivers licence ... or something like a medicare card and then a utility bill will have your name and address as well."
'Ballot on demand' new option for voters
For anyone who is not in their home electoral district on Monday, you can still vote, said Poffenroth.
The new "ballot on demand" feature means any polling station can print a ballot for your riding.
"So for example, if somebody from Moncton happens to be working in Fredericton today you can go into one of the Fredericton returning offices and receive a ballot for your Moncton riding and vote right there at that returning office."
Get out and vote
After problems in the 2014 provincial election with the transferring of results from the polling stations to Elections New Brunswick, Poffenroth is confident everything will go smoothly on Monday night.
"It's been a long couple of weeks for Elections New Brunswick so nobody wants to be up late tonight," she laughed.
"We've changed the software for transferring the results from the polling stations to Elections New Brunswick and made a number of other changes and we've... not just tested them but actually used them in actual election events upwards of 12 to 15 times since 2014."
While voter turnout for the advance polls was high, Poffenworth said it doesn't necessarily mean there will be a high turnout at the polls on Monday.
"Over the last four or five provincial elections, we've seen a steady increase in turnout at advance polls and regular voter turnout has either stayed the same or in some cases actually even gone down a little bit so it's difficult to make any conclusions."
"I encourage everyone to get out and vote today," said Poffenroth.
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