Whether or not E-voting will increase voter turnout has yet to be seen in Bridgewater.
The town, like many other municipalities, shifted exclusively to electronic voting due to safety concerns around COVID-19.
Town of Bridgewater returning officer Amanda Shupe said the town dealt with low voter turnout last municipal election, with a turnout rate around 39 per cent.
“Even with paper, we didn’t get a really high voter turn out last time,” she said.
“So I’m hoping with constantly putting it on social media, and being able to see it and learn about it on the website, that people get more involved.”
As of this afternoon, Bridgewater has seen a 17.5 per cent of voters cast their vote. Shupe says they hope more people will engage in voting.
Despite the slightly low turnout so far, Shupe says the election is going fairly smoothly.
The largest issue so far? Some residents haven’t received their voter information letter.
“People move and change addresses, so sometimes its hard to keep our voters list updated,” she said.
“Actually compared to previous elections, knock on wood, I haven’t received nearly as many pieces of returned mail as I did last election. We’ve also had nine people come in to use our voting kiosk so far.”
Voting will continue to be open in Bridgewater until Saturday, Oct. 17 at 7 pm, and can be done by phone or online.
For anyone missing their information letter are asked to contact Amanda Shupe at 902.541.4389.
