For people that own property within the city and neighbouring municipalities within the school board’s jurisdiction, candidates for the school board can appear on both ballots.
Voting twice is a violation of the Municipal Elections Act of Ontario and can come with charges and a court date. However, despite the flaw in the system, city clerk John Hannam feels it is a small issue.
“We do get people coming and saying ‘I’ve got a camp in Shuniah and I’ve already voted for school board,’” he said. “The voters that are in that circumstance, our experience is they know what the rules are and they understand they’re not supposed to get to vote twice for school board (candidates).”
The school boards do make every effort to inform those people that show up on multiple voter lists of the issue but it is ultimately up to the voter to do the right thing, said Hannam.
“Efforts are made to eliminate that duplication but we can’t do it entirely,” he said. “That’s up to the voter to identify whether they’ve already exercised their vote for school board in another jurisdiction.”
People who come to the polling stations and state they’ve already voted for the board candidates will be given a ballot without the school board candidates on it.
