Municipal Elections 101

Municipal elections are coming up October 19, 2024 and they will impact your life. You'll be getting a new mayor! Here's all you need to know to be a municipal citizen and vote in the October election

THE BASICS

In this post, I'm sharing fundamental Municipal Election information.

Who votes (and who doesn’t). The what, when, where, and why.

The Municipal Elections Act (PDF) is the main provincial legislation governing all elections for municipal councils and Conseil scolaire acadien elections. Mayors, councillors and Conseil scolaire acadien provincial school board members are elected on the same day for 4-year terms.

General elections are held every 4 years on the third Saturday in October.

The next general municipal election is 19 October 2024. The official nomination day is 10 September 2024.

Voter Information Letters

The voter information letters are mailed in September containing important information related to the municipal and school board elections, including a personalized PIN number for the alternative e-voting and telephone voting.

Please note that voter information letters are not forwarded by Canada Post. Residents with recent address changes should update their information by contacting 902-490-VOTE.

All eligible voters are encouraged to check and verify their voting information is accurate on our voters list. This step is particularly important for those who plan to vote through alternative methods such as e-voting or by phone.

If you are not on the list or your information has changed, please contact 902-490-VOTE (8683) or 1-844-301-VOTE (8683) to ensure you are listed correctly to vote.

Voter Information Letters include all the required information to vote over the phone, online, and in-person.

The Details

Local government is empowered to work through a provincial act called the Municipal Government Act, which downloads certain responsibilities and rights to the local government, mainly to charge property taxes, local government's main source of revenue. In this act you will find the laws governing how Halifax works, the mayor's role, and lots of other details.

In local politics in Halifax, people don't run with Parties or official party affiliation, though some candidates are associated with provincial or federal parties.

If you are one of over 480,000 Nova Scotians living in Halifax or another Municipality, you are voting on a councilor and a mayor for a 4 year term in office. The local council is your voice at city hall and your direct connection to city government. The mayor is a ceremonial position but with a lot of perceived soft power to influence the direction of the city though no real responsibilities or powers beyond being the chair of the council meeting.

Regional Council is, in theory*, the main decision-making body for the Halifax Regional Municipality. The members are the Mayor and the 16 Councillors. Councillors also sit on boards, committees and commissions, standing committees and community councils.

*In practice council will do anything it can to download and defer decisions to bureaucrats, agencies, boards, commissions, other levels of government departments, and quasi-government organizations like Develop Nova Scotia or the Utility Review Board. Sorry, it gets bad fast even at the 101 level.

YOUR DISTRICT

Halifax is HUGE. Amalgamated Halifax is almost four times the size of New York City. The divisions, called "Districts" in local politics are mega, especially since the number of councilors was dramatically reduced a few years back in a feigned cost saving measure. (The truth is your councilor only costs you pennies per week and more local representation by natural community would be better.)

To see a detailed map of your District here's a link to the Halifax web site. You may have to click around a by because the names of the Districts don't conform to the names of actual familiar places in the community. This is a bad thing. A borderline nefarious bit of political junk. Welcome to the world of politics on the ground.

YOUR CANDIDATES

Next you'll want to know the names of the people running. The official nomination period for candidates runs from Aug. 29 – Sept. 10, 2024 but candidates can register their intention to run from March on.

You can find the list of candidates announced (so far) here at:

https://www.halifax.ca/city-hall/elections/voters/candidate-list

THE DATE AND WHERE TO VOTE

Here are the qualifications to vote. Basically, if you are 18 and regularly live in Halifax you can vote.

Here's a form link to make sure you are already on the list to vote.

The 2024 election will be held on Saturday,  October 19.  Telephone and electronic voting will run the week before (dates to be announced), and Advanced Polling dates will also happen in October.

In the Halifax area, people can vote by phone, online or in-person.

Here's an interactive site where you can enter your address to find out your poll location and where to vote.

I will share the phone numbers and online voting links and dates when they become available.