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Election day is here and it’s your chance to vote for who you feel is best.
Municipalities throughout Ontario voted to join a new way of voting. Arnprior and the surrounding townships have opted in to voting only online or via telephone. With that, comes a learning curve to navigate.
If you’re voting online or via telephone, you’ll need your voter information letter. You should have received this in the mail a week or two before today.
This letter will include a special PIN, a website and phone number on where to cast your ballot. On the website, you will enter your unique PIN and your date of birth.
Once you’ve done that, click verify and it will bring you to the declaration of qualification and acknowledgement of offences statement for voting online. This is informing you of the qualifications needed in order to vote and the punishment you could receive if you illegally cast a ballot. On this page, you can also decline to vote.
Once confirmed, it will bring you into the voting page where you will see the candidates running for this years election. Select the candidates you’re planning on voting for, then you click the “next” button at the bottom.
Once you’ve selected all your preferred candidates, it will bring you to a summary page, showing which candidates you’ve selected. Here you can change which candidate you’re voting for if you’ve made an error or changed your mind. If everything is correct, you can click “submit” at the bottom.
Let your computer process the submission. Once finished, you will see a page that will tell you if your ballot has been successfully submitted.
At this point, you can click end session. You may see a page with a confirmation code for reference to your ballot.
Calling through the telephone, the virtual assistant should walk you through the voting process step-by-step.
If you’re having any difficulties voting or never received your voter information letter, call the election helpline at 613-623-4231 ext. 1817 any time before 8 p.m. today.
If you don’t have a working phone or computer, you can visit the Voter Help Centre at Town Hall at 105 Elgin St. W. any time before 8 p.m. today. They will have access to computers and iPads and staff is available to help anyone through the process.
You will need to bring your voter information letter that you received in the mail. If you never received the letter, you must bring identification that includes your name and address.
Polls close at 8 p.m. tonight.
(Written by: Bob Kubbinga)
