There are some changes being proposed for Elections NB after the release of a discussion paper called “Modernizing New Brunswick’s Electoral Legislation”.
Chief Electoral Officer Kim Poffenroth says the act was written in 1967 and has had a few tweaks since then but this is a major overhaul they are looking at doing.
“The discussion paper includes 108 recommendations which propose amendments to the three main pieces of legislation that establish our mandate, the elections act, the political process financing act and the municipal elections act,” stated Poffenroth.
One thing would really like to see come to fruition is an end to the political appointment of returning officers with a merit-based hiring process instead.
“We would have confidence that the individuals that are being appointed to do the very important job have the appropriate skill set for the work that needs to be carried out”, stated Poffenroth.
The discussion paper is open for feedback until September 30th and Poffenroth hopes they do get plenty of feedback on this.
