Frequently Asked Questions

Nominations can be filed starting May 2, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. and ending August 19 at 2:00 p.m.

Nominations must be on the prescribed forms and are to be filed with the Clerk or his or her designate at the Municipal Office, 55 King Street West, Cobourg ON, K9A 2M2 in the following manner:

• In person or through an agent;
• During regular office hours at the Clerk’s Office from May 2, 2022 to Thursday, August 18, 2022 during regular office hours, and between 9:00 am and 2:00 pm on Friday, August 19, 2022 (Nomination Day);
• With the endorsement of nomination for Council, being at least 25 signatures;
• With the prescribed statement of qualifications, signed by the person being nominated;
• With the prescribed nomination fee of $200.00 for Head of Council and $100.00 for all other offices – the filing fee shall be paid by cash, cheque, money order or by debit machine;
• With proof of identity and residence as prescribed in O. Reg. 304/13. No electronic transmitted nomination paper will be accepted – original signatures are required. Nomination papers for school boards must be filed at the appropriate municipal office.

Term of Office

New Council deemed to be organized when the declarations of office have been made by a sufficient number of members to form a quorum, term of office for the 2022-2026 term of council will begin on November 15, 2022 at the earliest.

Contribution Limits

Raise the limit for contributions to a single candidate from $750 to $1,200, consistent with the provincial limits.

Self-funding Limit

Impose a self-funding limit for municipal council candidates based on the number of electors voting for the office, to a maximum of $25,000 per candidate. The formula for calculating the limit would be $7,500 + $0.20 per elector for Head of Council, and $5,000 + $0.20 per elector for other council offices.

There is the requirement that anyone wishing to run for office on a Council must submit the signatures of 25 voters supporting the nomination. The individuals providing the signatures will each have to sign a declaration stating that they were eligible to vote in the municipality on the day that they signed the endorsement. If a candidate files a nomination, and then changes their mind and decides to run for a different office on the same council, they are not required to submit new signatures.

The requirement to submit 25 nomination signatures does not apply to candidates running for school board trustee positions.

No. The Clerk is required to certify each nomination after it has been filed. The Clerk will verify the candidate’s name is on the Voters’ List and eligibility. It is the responsibility of the candidate to ensure they meet all the qualifications and file proper nomination papers. Each candidate is responsible to ensure that their forms are in order. The deadline to certify the nomination papers is past the nomination deadline and this may result in papers being rejected.

You can only start campaigning and erecting signs once your nomination papers have been filed and pursuant to the Election Sign By-law. 

It is the responsibility of each candidate to ensure they are qualified to seek the office for which they are being nominated. If you are unsure, seek legal advice immediately.

In accordance with the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 a person’s residence is “the permanent lodging place to which, whenever absent, he or she intends to return”.

The following rules apply in determining a person’s residence:

• A person may only have one residence at a time;
• The place where a person’s family resides is also his or her residence, unless he or she moves elsewhere with the intention of changing his or her permanent lodging place;
• If a person has no other permanent lodging place, the place where he or she occupies a room or part of a room as a regular lodger or to which he or she habitually returns.

Campaign provisions have been clarified to allow candidates to access apartment buildings, condominiums, non-profit housing co-ops or gated communities from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. in order to campaign. Landlords and condominium corporations will not be allowed to prohibit tenants or owners from displaying campaign signs in their windows.

Here are the excerpts from the legislation:

Access to residential premises

88.1 No person who is in control of an apartment building, condominium building, non-profit housing cooperative or gated community may prevent a candidate or his or her representative from campaigning between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. at the doors to the apartments, units or houses, as the case may be.

Display of signs at residential premises

88.2 (1) No landlord or person acting on a landlord’s behalf may prohibit a tenant from displaying signs in relation to an election on the premises to which the lease relates.

The legislation regarding the rights of candidates to enter apartment buildings, condominiums, and non-profits for the purposes of canvassing can also be found in:

• Condominium Act, 1998, S.O. 1998, Chapter 19
• Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, S.O. 2006, Chapter 17
• Co-operative Corporations Act, R.S.O. 1990, Chapter C.35

Yes, online and telephone voting does keep a record of the electronic ballot/vote.  The ballot/vote are counted as they are deposited into the electronic ballot box. The Clerk is required to keep the ballots/votes for 120 days after the results of the election are declared

-The Elections Office staff will provide you with a blank copy of the Financial Statement – Form 4 with your nomination package. The Clerk will also notify you by registered mail following the municipal election. These forms will also be available upon request with the Clerk’s Office at 905-372-4301 or by emailing us.

Please note it is the responsibility of the candidate to ensure their papers are completed accurately, truthfully, and within the legislated timelines. Failure to submit your financial statement can result in the immediate removal from office if elected, the inability to run in the next municipal election, and other penalties under the Municipal Elections Act, 1996.

All financial statements are posted online upon their filing with the Clerk.

No, you still must file your nomination papers in person at the Town of Cobourg Clerk's Office located at 55 King Street, West, Cobourg Ontartio, K9A 2M2.

You must be eligible to run for office at the time of nomination and throughout the election. If you are elected, you must maintain your eligibility during your time in office.

Candidates will sign a declaration swearing that they will destroy the Voters’ List in an acceptable manner. If you would like to return your list to the Clerk’s Office we will ensure the list is destroyed on your behalf.

An employee of a municipality or local board is eligible to be a candidate and to be elected as a member of the council or local board if he or she takes an unpaid leave of absence beginning as of the day the employee is nominated and ending on Voting Day. If the employee is elected to the office, he or she shall be deemed to have resigned from the employment immediately before making the declaration of office.

Please consult legislation in the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 and the Municipal Act, 2001.

The Town has a Notice of Withdraw Form that you will be required to complete at the Municipal Office. This must be done before the close of nominations on August 19, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

All qualified electors on the official Municipal Elector's List provided by the municipality.

Eligible electors who are not on the official Elector List will have to go to a location designated by the Election Official and complete the required form to have their name added to the Elector List. Once this is completed you will be given a VIL by the Election Official.

Individual PINs will be mailed to eligible electors so that they are received approximately seven (7) to fourteen (14) days prior to the first voting day.

If you are an eligible elector and on the official Elector List, but you did not get a PIN in the mail by the start of the election period, you can request a replacement PIN. If the Election Official’s records indicate you were sent a PIN in the mail, then the original PIN will be disabled and cannot be used to cast a vote in the election. A replacement PIN will be issued to you if the original PIN has not been voted and you provide appropriate identification.

If you did not get a PIN in the mail, one of two things may have happened.  First, your name was not on the official Elector List. PINs are only mailed to electors whose names appear on the official Elector List as supplied by the municipality. Secondly, a PIN may have been mailed to you and it has been delayed for some reason in the mail system.

No. The system does not track how a particular PIN has voted, only that the PIN has been used to cast a vote.

No, there is no registration required. During the election period, using your PIN, you can use either the telephone or the Internet to cast your vote, or vote using a paper ballot if this is offered by the municipality.

If an elector loses or misplaces their PIN, they should contact the Voter HelpLine. The Election Official can decide to replace the missing PIN if it has not already been voted. They will determine if a voter has to travel to a location, sign a form, and then replace the missing PIN, or they can decide to allow the Voter HelpLine agent to authenticate the caller and issue a replacement PIN over the phone. In both cases, the original lost or missing PIN will be disabled, and it will not be able to be voted in the election. 

Voting instructions will be included in the Voter Instruction letter mailed to each eligible elector on the official Elector List. Included in this information are instructions on how to access the voting system. Voters can cast their ballot using the telephone or cell phone by calling a toll-free number. Voters using personal computers will use the Internet to visit a website that will allow them entry into the voting system where they can cast their vote.

No, you do not have to vote all ballots at one time uninterrupted. You can disconnect from the Internet or the telephone and re-connect later, re-enter your PIN and any other credentials required and complete your voting activity at that time. In fact, if you find it more convenient, you can switch from one method to the other and complete your voting using the other method. For example, you can start your voting on the Internet and at some point close your Internet session, and then later re-start the voting process and re-enter your PIN and any other credentials required using your phone or cell phone and complete your ballot.

During the voting period you can connect to the voting system and enter your PIN. If you have yet to complete all ballots assigned to you, the system will begin where you left off - at the next race you are eligible to complete. When you have completed voting all ballots assigned to you, entering your PIN online and any other credentials required in the voting system during the voting period will display a message containing your vote status. This message will advise if you have completed voting. You can also contact the Voter HelpLine to get more information.

The Voter Instruction letter mailed to you has the list of candidates included on it for your reference purpose.  In addition, each time the system presents you with a race to vote for, it lists the eligible candidates running for that position and instructs you to select the corresponding number for that candidate. You may also clear your ballot selections and start over.

No. Once a vote has been confirmed it cannot be changed. This process is the same as dropping the ballot into the ballot box in a traditional paper-based election ensuring complete voter anonymity and secrecy of ballot. The system does not know how the ballot was voted; only that the PIN was used in the election to cast a vote and thus it cannot be removed from the vote count.

You can vote during the election voting period using the Internet from anywhere in the world.  You can also use telephone service and connect to the voting system toll free from anywhere in North America simply by dialing the toll-free number contained in your Voter Instruction letter.

You do not have to vote from home. You can vote from any location using any phone with touch tone service or from any computer. You can also vote in person at polling stations if the municipality is offering PC’s and phones at these locations and/or paper ballots in concert with the electronic voting options. The location of the polling stations can be found in the Voter Instruction letters sent to eligible electors.

You should treat your voting PIN with the same level of secrecy and confidentially you reserve for your bank card and PIN. Do not give your PIN to anyone who may call or approach you for the number. 

If the phone lines are busy, simply hang up and call back a short time later. The voting system can handle a significant volume of calls simultaneously but there is always the possibility that many voters are attempting to call in the same timeframe. Voters will be able to connect to the system over the course of several days during the voting period.

Stealing and opening another person’s mail is illegal.  B. It is also illegal to represent yourself as another person and steal their right to vote in an election. Both these acts are illegal and have penalties defined by law. 

If you know someone has voted your PIN illegally you should report it to the Election Official. You may be able to obtain a replacement PIN to cast your vote by presenting yourself to the Election Official and swearing an affidavit that the PIN assigned to you was not voted by you but by someone else.

Electronic voting allows increased right of privacy to voters with physical challenges that make traditional voting at polling stations more difficult. Blind voters can make use of the telephone and deaf voters can use the Internet to vote with little or no assistance required from others. If you need assistance at the polling station to cast your vote, the Election Official present will be able to assist you.

If you received more than one PIN, it is because your name appeared on the Elector List more than once. This rare situation might occur if you changed your place of residence and have been enumerated in both locations or you own property and are the registered resident at both locations. You are only permitted to vote once in a municipality, and you should only cast a vote using the PIN associated with your primary place of residence. Notify the Election Official of the additional PIN and they will disable this PIN rendering it unusable for the election.