Info session at city hall geared for prospective candidates in Oct. election

Prospective candidates for the upcoming municipal election in Brandon are being encouraged to attend an information session next week.

The city’s senior election official, Heather Ewasiuk, is hosting the event to give potential candidates insight into the positions and what rules they need to follow during the election.

“I think it’s important if somebody is interested in serving their community that they get first-hand information about what it takes to run their campaign,” Ewasiuk said.

Outgoing council members will also be in attendance to tell attendees what their jobs are like and what responsibilities are attached to them.

“I think a lot of people don’t necessarily know the specifics about what authority council has and what they actually do,” Ewasiuk added.

She said there’s never a huge turnout at the events, but that it does help people who are on the fence make a decision either way.

“I think it’s valuable when we have existing councillors give their perspective as well, because they’re the ones that have been through the trenches and they can give some really valuable insight.”

The event is set for Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at city hall at 410 Ninth St.

To be an eligible candidate, people must be a Canadian citizen, reside or own property in the city and be 18 years or older as of election day.

Candidates don’t have to run in the ward they live in.

More specific rules around who can run as a candidate can be found on the city’s website.

Mayoral candidates can already register for the Oct. 28 election, while prospective councillors can begin registering on June 30.

Ewasiuk gave an overview of the rules for candidates at Monday evening’s city council meeting.

She told people wanting to run to reach out to her at brandonvotes@brandon.ca to schedule an appointment.

She also talked about the city moving back to electronic vote-counting machines.

Ewasiuk told the Sun that the electronic voting machines were used in the city’s 2010, 2014 and 2018 elections, and that it’s good to have the technology back this year.

The ballots in 2022 were counted by hand because of the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company that the city dealt with didn’t have the resources necessary at the time and the city was late in making a submission, she said.

Ewasiuk described the machines as “a game changer.”

“The machines allow us to have more accurate and timely results. At the end of the night, instead of having to spend two or three hours counting, we can have the results within 10 minutes by pushing the little button.”

The machines eliminate human error, she added, as election workers have been at the polls for a full day and then need to count the ballots. For school board elections in the past, ballots have had the names of 14 candidates with voters allowed to vote for eight people.

“Counting off those eight names on every ballot manually takes a lot of time,” Ewasiuk said.

“It’s time-consuming, and the workers have been there for at least 12, 13 hours at that point, and they’re tired. It’s a long day. That’s when mistakes can happen. So, this kind of eliminates that factor.”

Ewasiuk also described how the machine can alert a voter that their ballot is filled out incorrectly.

When a voter places their ballot, the machine scans it and checks to see if the correct number of votes has been made. If an incorrect number of marks have been made, an election official, who can’t see the ballot, can ask the voter if they want to make a change.

The voter can make a change to their ballot if they want, in which case the ballot is removed and sealed in an envelope. A voter can also say they are happy with their ballot, which the machine can then accept.

She said the machines are audited every time they’re used to make sure they are functioning correctly. The city uses a test deck with possible voting variations and compares the machine’s results.

In 2010, the results in a race between two candidates for councillor came within one vote. The 541-540 result was later upheld in a judicial recount, which Ewasiuk said is a testament to the accuracy of the machines.

“It’s becoming the norm and people should not be intimidated by them, because it’s a very easy process,” she said about the machines.

» alambert@brandonsun.com