Dear Editor:
If New Westminster city council is seriously concerned about low voter turnout in our local elections, the council should do much more than just updating city hall website (The Record, May 16, New Westminster seeks to encourage voter turnout).
Here are five good suggestions I have for council.
To start with, the council must decide to promote the elections in places where the message will be easily seen. They can (1) place a banner over city hall and (2) install billboards on prominent city intersections. The message shall be clear, concise and non-partisan.
Our city regularly sends letters - including electric bills - to every residence in the city, which is an opportunity to promote elections by (3) placing a note on the envelopes used in September, October and November mailing, leading to the fall elections.
Over past two years, I approached the council several times asking them to help increase voter turnout by (4) setting special places on public property where candidates will be allowed to place posters during election campaign. After my first presentation, the benefits of this approach have been described in this newspaper (The Record, Feb. 24, 2012, Resident calls for change to sign bylaws). Unfortunately, the council keeps ignoring this proposal, which would increase elections visibility in the city.
I also hope New Westminster will follow the example from Coquitlam and support public engagement in election process by (5) allowing organizers of all-candidate meetings to promote these meetings
on signs placed on public property in the vicinity of the meeting location.
Last December, I had a meeting with New Westminster's acting chief legislative officer (better known as the city clerk) who has been working on modernizing city's voting system, and her report to council is due anytime now. Key points of this report will be a proposal to (a) increase the number of advanced polling stations and (b) implement electronic tracking system during voting.
Currently, the city has one advanced polling station located at city hall. If the council approves the city clerk's proposal, the city will have at least four advanced polling stations, located throughout the city, probably at New Westminster City Hall, Queensborough Community Centre, Century House and Centennial Community Centre.
The reason for implementing electronic tracking system is to meet the provincial government's requirements for local electoral systems. These requirements, introduced last summer, call for use of one of the specified methods for voter verification. But the present New Westminster system does not follow any of such methods, and therefore does not sufficiently safeguard against unauthorized voting. By the way, the City of Burnaby updated their electoral system two years ago on their own initiative.
As many New Westminster residents, I am a big admirer and supporter of the city's rich history, traditions, culture, architecture.
But an outdated, unsuitable electoral system is not a part of New Westminster heritage I would like to keep.
Vladimir Krasnogor, New Westminster
