2020 NB Voting Guide

Can You Vote?

All Canadian citizens who have lived in New Brunswick for 40 days before election day (i.e. since August 5th) and will be 18 years old by election day are eligible to vote. Period, full stop. 

If you are on the voters list, you should have received a notice in the mail by now in a big yellow envelope. If you received this and your name was correctly listed, you will receive a voter information card in the mail. If you received this and your name was missing or you didn't receive this, you probably aren't on the voters list. This is not a big deal and can be fixed relatively easily.  

If you plan to go vote in person, you can get added to the list when you arrive to vote. You need to bring either some ID or official mail with your current address, or a friend that is on the voters list and who votes at the same polling place as you and they can vouch for you and get you added to the list. 

If you want to vote by mail, you need to be on the voters list before they will send you a ballot and you should call 1-888-858-8683 to get on the list. 

When To Vote?

While you can vote now, exercise caution when voting too early. You will have to write in the name of your candidate on the ballot and most candidates are not yet officially registered. If you vote for someone who ends up not being an official candidate your vote will be spoiled (i.e. it won't count) and you can't take it back and change it. Also if you write in the name of your candidate and it differs from how their name appears on the ballot, your vote could also be spoiled. Before writing in a name on a ballot, I would strongly recommend you check the list of official candidates, wait until your candidate of choice is listed, and make sure you write their name in exactly as it is listed on the registry. 

Vote By Mail

You need to fill out and sign a form. The signature is used to verify your identity when you vote. So that means you need access to a printer and scanner, or you need to go to the returning office.  If you are going to go to the returning office anyway, you may as well just vote while you're there (see below).

After you apply, Elections New Brunswick will send you a vote-by-mail package that you need to ensure is returned to your returning office by the time the polls close: 8 pm on September 14th. It doesn't matter if it is posted by then, it is when it arrives that counts. This freaks me out: mail gets lost, can be unpredictably slow, etc. So exercise caution and in spite of my advice above, mail your ballot as early as you can. The sweet spot is probably the afternoon of August 28th, if you have received your ballot kit by then, as the final list of candidates will be published shortly after 2 pm on August 28th. 

It is also important to know that you must vote for your candidate by name; writing in their political party alone will spoil your ballot. Adding the name of the party in addition to the name of the candidate should be fine, but may spoil your ballot at the discretion of the returning officer. Please just write the name exactly as it appears on the registry of candidates, this is the best way to ensure your vote counts. 

You might be wondering about the secrecy of your ballot due to the signature verification process. You are mostly safe there. You will fill your ballot and put it in an unmarked envelope. You put that first envelope into a second envelope which you sign. The returning office will verify that your signature matches and then discard the second (outer) envelope. Your anonymous inner envelope will then be placed with other such envelopes and counted later. So unless you are the only person who votes by mail in your riding, the secrecy of your vote should be maintained. 

Vote at the Returning Office

You can vote at any returning office any time they are open which is 9 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday and 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday. (They are not open on Sunday because that's the Lord's day, as you know.)

It is important to note that you can vote at any returning office and the nearest returning office to your home or work may be in another riding. For instance, if you live in a geographically large riding like Carleton-York, the returning office is in the southwest corner of the riding in Harvey and it may be easier for you to go to a returning office in Woodstock or Fredericton. The riding of Fredericton-Grand Lake has its returning office in Minto, while many of the riding's residents live and work in Fredericton--they can go vote in a returning office in another Fredericton riding. 

If you vote in a returning office before ballots are printed or any time at a returning office other than your home riding, you will have to write in the name of your candidate and the same advice as above on mail-in ballots applies: ensure your candidate of choice is an official candidate and that you know the correct spelling and form of their name before you vote. 

If you vote in your own returning office after ballots are printed (probably after approximately September 1st), you will mark the same ballot you would on election day. 

Advanced Polls

Advanced polling stations will be open from 10 am to 8 pm on Saturday, September 5th and Tuesday, September 8th. (For those of you used to the normal rhythm, this may sound odd. In provincial elections, they are normally open on Saturday and Monday the week before election day. However, because that Monday is Labour day, it is bumped to Tuesday.)

Your advanced polling location will be listed on your voter information card which you should receive in the mail if you are on the voters list. If you didn't receive a card, you can look up your voting location online (the polling locations might not be available yet; as of this writing on August 23 mine were not). 

Ordinary Polls

You can also vote the old fashioned way on election day. Polling stations will be open from 10 am to 8 pm. Your polling location will be listed on your voter information card which you should receive in the mail if you are on the voters list. If you didn't receive a card, you can look up your voting location online (the polling locations might not be available yet; as of this writing on August 23 mine were not).