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Advance polls for the upcoming city election are to open Monday.
People hoping to beat the lineup can go to City Hall, the Northgate Mall, the Northwest Leisure Centre, the South Leisure Centre and the Victoria Square Mall at various times until Wednesday.
Drive-through voting will be an option on Smith Street next to City Hall as well.
Mail-in voting is also an option, though there is an issue: If your ballot hasn’t been delivered by election night, it won’t be counted.
City clerk Jim Nicol weighed in on the issue.
“You can still apply for a mail-in ballot, but it takes time to process, to get to our office via courier. It has to be in our office by 8 p.m on Nov. 9 in order to be counted. So if you’ve been waiting, thinking, ‘Well, I might do a mail-in ballot application, that’s easier,’ then you need to get on it right away, or I would suggest you take advantage of the advance poll days,” he explained to reporters Friday.
That being said, the city has already received significantly more mail-in ballots than in a usual year.
“We’ve seen a huge uptick. On a typical year, we may get between 80 to 120. As of (Friday) morning, the numbers were close to 4,600 or 4,700. That gives you a pretty good understanding of the uptick we’ve seen (and) the interest in it,” he said.
That trend echoes the Oct. 26 provincial election, in which mail-in ballots were sent in at record highs.
Some final results in that election were delayed due to high numbers of mail-in ballots, but Nicol doesn’t anticipate that will happen in the city, as mail-in votes will be counted election night.
There might be a delay of a few hours, at most.
“That’s where a delay might come in, if there’s a huge avalanche of mail-in ballots,” he said.
No matter how you decide to vote, Nicol is confident in the COVID safety measures in place.
“The advance polls and the regular polls are going to be one of the safest places you can go. We’re very confident that we have an incredibly comprehensive safety regime in place. There will be hand sanitizer, there will be masks available … (and) you will be screened at the door … If you’re screened and you can’t come in, you will be offered a curbside vote,” he explained.
The election is scheduled for Nov. 9. People in Regina will vote for mayor, city councillors and school board members.