Municipal elections are underway in Manitoba and voters, like Mila Rapajon, are heading to the polls today to cast their ballots.
“I just want to exercise my right, and as a Canadian citizen, it’s your right to vote,” she told CBC News after casting her ballot at a polling station inside the Maples Community Center in northwest Winnipeg .
Despite her conviction about her civic duty, she wasn’t sure who she should get her support from.
“All the candidates say ‘I’ll do this, I’ll do that,’ but when they’re in office … they forget everything. So when I vote, I guess: eeny, meeny, miny, moe.”
Polling stations — 198 of them — open at 8 a.m. in locations across the provincial capital and will be open until 8 p.m.
If you’re in line before 8 p.m., you can still vote even if the wait takes you past 8 p.m., said Marc Lemoine, senior elections official and city clerk.
Mila Rapajon stresses the importance of voting, even if you’re not convinced you know who to vote for. (Bert Savard/CBC)
Like Rapajon, Henry Dow asserted the need to mark a vote.
“Of course it’s important to vote. It’s the only way I have a say in it, in our system,” he said outside the polling station in Maples.
Asked what changes he hopes to see, Dow was blunt: “An honest politician.”
David Kroeker said voting is the way he can have a say in the decisions made at city hall.
“If you don’t vote, you don’t have room to cry” when decisions you don’t agree with are made by elected officials, he said.
“People fought wars so we could vote. That’s why I vote,” said Colleen Kroeker, his wife.
While residents could visit any location to vote during early voting, voters must go to their assigned location on Election Day, Lemoine said.
You can find this address in the orange box on the voter notice you received in the mail.
Don’t know where to vote on Wednesday? One option is to find that location in the orange voter notice box, seen here in a sample version. (Bartley Kives/CBC)
A sample notice the city ran as an example included an imaginary voter named Willow Rosenberg, the name of a witch from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“Whatever we can do to get people to the polls, right? That’s what I’m all about,” Lemoine said.
If you don’t have a voting notice, you can also find out where to vote by typing your address at this page of the city’s website or by calling 311, Lemoine said.
You can find more details here on how to vote and what to bring
The people of Winnipeg are electing a new mayor for the first time since 2014 registration number have already voted before early voting.
There was also an increase in the number of people voting by mail, with about 800 this year compared to 200 in the last civic election, Lemoine said.
Adele and Sheldon Globerman, who voted at The Maples, applauded efforts to increase voting opportunities through advance polls at malls and other public places, but would also like the opportunity to vote online.
“You can do everything else online these days. You should be able to vote, too,” said Sheldon Globerman.
Proven voting machines
Before polls opened Wednesday, election officials tested all of the city’s voting machines with 50,000 pre-marked ballots, and the results were perfect, Lemoine said.
“So we’re very confident about the results coming out of these machines,” he said.
Ballot counting will begin after the polls close at 8 p.m., Lemoine said, starting with early voting and then moving to votes cast on Election Day.
After the results are obtained at each station, poll workers will take the final results to the town hall and then they are published online.
Marc Lemoine is the Senior Electoral Officer and City Clerk of the City of Winnipeg. (Bartley Kives/CBC)
The first results are expected between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m., while most results are expected around 9:15 p.m., Lemoine said. All results should be in around 9.45pm
CBC will host a live Winnipeg election results program, which you can watch on our website, our Facebook page and CBC TV and CBC Gem. The program is scheduled from 8 to 10 p.m. but will be extended if necessary.
For Winnipeg voters still trying to decide who should be the city’s next mayor, look no further this list of what the candidates have promised i these individual interviews with CBC.
Five of the candidates also participated in last week’s CBC mayoral candidate debate, which you can see here.
New councilors arrive
In addition to electing a new mayor, Winnipeggers are also voting for city councilors in 13 of 15 wards.
The other two were elected by acclamation after no one confronted them.
Wards with races include Transcona, where a sitting councilor faces his predecessori Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood i Saint Jameswhere the contests are open because their incumbents are running for mayor, meaning Winnipeg is guaranteed to get at least two new councillors.
The other wards that will elect councilors are Daniel McIntyre, Elmwood-East Kildonan, Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry, Mynarski, North Kildonan, Point Douglas, River Heights-Fort Garry, St. Boniface, St. Vital and Waverley West.
While a record number of people in Winnipeg already voted ahead of early voting, many had yet to vote. (John Woods/The Canadian Press)
Controversy of the school counselor
You can read the full list of who is running for school counselor in Winnipeg on the city’s website.
Those races have not been without controversy. At least a dozen people running for school board positions in Winnipeg are believed to be vocal critics of the pandemic-era restrictions, some of whom gained wide notoriety for their dissent.
Concerns have also been raised about Manitoba election laws related to school board races, as the current rules do not require disclosure of who finances a campaign.
Country races are heating up
Almost half of Manitoba’s municipalities holding elections this year will see their head of council elected by acclamation, either mayors or aldermen.
But the city of Brandon is among those with a mayoral race, the first in Manitoba’s second-largest city since 2014. Residents there are guaranteed to elect a new mayor, as Rick Chrest is not running to re-election.
So are several other communities in the province, from Portage la Prairie and Dauphin in southwestern Manitoba to Flin Flon, The Pas and Lynn Lake in the north.
Meanwhile, the mayoral race in the southern Manitoba town of Winkler will see a town councilor face off against a man who failed to turn the community into a sanctuary city immune to pandemic restrictions.