Byelection for Ward 2
The chief electoral officer has decided to hold a byelection to fill the final Ward 2 seat.
It has been a very troubling situation for the candidates in this ward after missing ballots changed the results several times. To add to the issues, there have also been reports of ballot tampering by elections staff!
The issue I see with this is that they are now saying anyone in the Ward 2 is free to run. It doesn’t make any sense to allow anyone other then White, Higgins, and McCormack to run.
Let’s face it, they have already put their names forward, run a full campaign, and then had to deal with these issues. Letting anyone run put them at an advantage because of the costs associated with running a campaign. These candidates now have to pay for two campaigns!
If someone else had wanted to run, they should have put their name down from the beginning.
Letting others get involved now is just plain wrong. This byelection should be between the candidates who were on the ballot.
The issues were not with the candidates, it was with the ballots and election officials.
Posted in Saint John Politics |
June 4th, 2008 at 10:06 am
This is essentially a runoff election. Any place in the world where runoff elections are held,only the top two candidates run. I belive it should be only between Higgins and White.If there had been 10 candidates in Ward 2 on May 9 they would all be able to run again under your scenario,even if some only received a handful of votes.I know McCormack did well but this byelection should be between the two “winners.”
June 4th, 2008 at 10:16 am
The issue is that there are no laws in place for these situations, the only option for them is to call a byelection.
My main point isn’t with the number of people running, but the fact that we shouldn’t have new people running.
The fairest option is to only have the people who had put their name forward in the first place to run again.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
If ten candidates had run in the original election and some made dismal showings,you would support allowing all of them to re-offer?
June 4th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Again, I’m not arguing on that point, my issue is that there shouldn’t be new people running that didn’t originally sign the papers and participate in the Ward 2 election.
June 17th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
It’s still an Old Boys’ Club as it is right now.Its a free country I would hope anyone who wants to run in this byelection would be able to do do. I would like to see one female in there. Am still skeptical about the way things were done. Carl White is a sore loser.I hope Debbie McCormack sneaks through the middle and beats them both this time.