There's been a lot of chatter about #onpoli Bill 218 & #RankedBallots but the change that would really impact #ONMuni election planning, from the standpoint of our #MunicipalExperts, is the longer nomination period.

This means Clerks have less time (just under one month) to ensure ballots are prepared. As PA @ParmGill acknowledged during the debate yesterday, mun. elections are complicated & can be overwhelming. There are dozens of municipal and school board candidates on numerous ballots.

We had successfully advocated to @ONMunicipal last MEA review to move the date to the summer which allowed local electoral officers more time to prepare while still giving potential candidates time to get their paperwork in order.

The date change was more than about implementing #RankedBallots. It was about effectively managing and administering municipal elections, particularly when any alternative methods to in-person voting are used.

As our #MunicipalExperts are looking into alternate voting methods to ensure more people can vote safely, it becomes more difficult to implement these alternatives with a proposed shorter period between nomination day and election day.

Having nomination day too close to election day makes it difficult to effectively deliver election services. For instance, clerks in smaller #ONMuni, do day-to-day service delivery often alone or with few staff AND deliver elections, giving them less time to prepare.

Clerks in medium and larger #ONMuni must verify and certify nominations for each office, have thousands of ballots with a number of ballot face variations to print and then test once nominations are finalized.

They must also clean up the list of electors which has inaccuracies, until 2024 when a single register of electors begins (subj. to proclamation).

We would urge @SteveClarkPC to reconsider the amendment to s.31 of the Bill (around nomination day) so that this remains unchanged.