New Westminster to write a “report card” on 2018 civic election

New Westminster will take a look at whether changes need to be made on how to engage voters in future civic elections.

On Monday night, council received a staff report with the official results of the 2018 local election, a report required by law. Staff will also report back to council about issues arising during the recent election campaign.

“What I would like to see back from staff is a bit of a report card on how the election went and how it went from the point of view of the public,” said Coun. Mary Trentadue. “I think that all of us did a lot of campaigning and talked to a lot of people in three months. There are some things that I heard often. I guess one of them that I’ll just point out was the voter cards.”

While New Westminster historically hasn’t sent out voter cards for civic elections, Trentadue said it was an issue raised during the election campaign.

“I would like to know, are there some things that we should be considering going forward so we can engage more of the public?” she said. “If people were expecting a card and they did not get one, that’s a bit problematic. I am not suggesting either way what we should do, but I would like us to have a conversation about it sometime in the next period, before another election so we can make changes if we need to.”

Mayor Jonathan Cote said staff are planning to report back to city council on the election early in 2019. He said the three topics that came up during the campaign centred around voter cards, absentee ballots and issues around election signs, so staff will report back on those items, as well as any additional opportunities they may have to improve public engagement in future elections.