(File photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Carrot River byelection proceeding

Carrot River holding mayoral byelection on Friday

May 6, 2020 | 5:00 PM

Residents of Carrot River will be able to cast their ballot for mayor on Friday, May 8.

The candidates in the mayoral byelection are Acting Mayor Ila Boehm and Brock Irvine.

The byelection was slated for March 25, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The advance poll had already been held March 13, with a turnout of 33 voters.

“It was really important to council earlier this year to call a byelection so that we could fill that seat so there would be an elected mayor,” Administrator Kevin Trew told northeastNOW. However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trew said that urgency subsided significantly.

Trew said strict rules in the Municipalities Act and the Local Government Elections Act stated the community would need to hold a byelection for mayor prior to May 15, even though a province-wide municipal election is due to be held Nov. 9. The provincial government has since relaxed those rules due to COVID-19, and stated that Carrot River did not need to hold their byelection at this point.

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“Council had a discussion regarding this, and because we were already set in motion, and the election was set up and we had the advance polls and we already had candidates, we felt it was only fair to the two candidates to continue along and see this through,” Trew said.

The lone polling station in the community will be at the Town Office. Trew said they will have the polling at the front counter, and the doors to the office will remain open so people don’t have to touch the handles. Only one household will be allowed into the town office at one time, and people can bring their own pens, or one will be provided for them to keep.

“We do plan to clean in between each household, so if there’s more than one voter from a household, they can come in together, but we do plan to wipe down the voter booth and the front counter between each voter or household voting,” Trew said.

Anyone with questions can call the town hall at 306-768-2515, and Trew said they can also discuss potential options for people leery to come in and vote, including delivering ballots to vehicles.

Voting will take place Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The byelection was needed after the resignation of former mayor Bob Gagne Nov. 14, 2019.

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974