Are you qualified to vote? Are you on the voters list?

WELLINGTON COUNTY – Most ballots and voter information will arrive by mail this week for the municipal elections on Oct. 26.

Citizens will be voting by mail, online or in person.

Voters who have not received an information card/ballot should confirm they are on the official voters list for their municipality by contacting the clerk’s office in their municipality or online at registertovoteon.ca. Anyone who finds they are not on the voters list but should be, should contact their municipal clerk.

Who can vote?

A person is entitled to vote in the election for municipal council if they meet all the following requirements: 

– Canadian citizen;

–  aged 18 or older; and

– qualified to vote in the municipality.

There are three ways that citizens qualify to vote in a municipality: 

– as a resident elector if they live in the municipality. You may own, rent, live in shared accommodation where you do not pay rent, or live in the municipality but do not have a fixed address. Being a resident elector is the most common type of eligibility;

– as a non-resident elector if you own or rent property in a municipality, but it’s not the one where you live. You can be a resident elector in only one municipality. However, you can be a non-resident elector in any other municipality (or municipalities) where you own or rent property; and

– as the spouse of a non-resident elector if your spouse owns or rents property in the municipality or municipalities other than the one where you live. 

Note: Neither you nor your spouse qualify as a non-resident elector if you do not personally own or rent the property in the municipality. If you are not certain whether you qualify as a non-resident elector you should check with the municipal clerk. 

If you qualify to vote in more than one municipality, you can vote in all of those municipal elections. For example, if you qualify as a resident elector in one municipality, and a non-resident elector in three other municipalities, you can vote in all four of those municipal elections. 

The exception to this rule is if two or more of the municipalities are lower-tier municipalities in the same region and voters are electing candidates to the regional council. In that case, you can vote for a regional council office only once.

However, if your municipality has wards you must vote in the ward where you live. Owners or tenants of a property in another ward are not permitted to vote in that ward instead. 

If you are a non-resident elector and you own or rent properties in more than one ward in the municipality, you must choose one ward to vote in. 

If you are a student living away from home while attend ing school and consider your “home” to be the place where you live when you are not attending school (that is, you plan on returning there), then you are eligible to vote in both your “home” municipality and in the municipality where you live while attending school. 

Removing your name

The voters’ list is a public document.  Anyone who does not want their  name to appear on the voters list can apply to the clerk to have it removed.

Voters whose names have been removed from the list will not be able to vote.

Citizens also apply to the clerk to remove the name of someone who is deceased.