1 Yellowknifer says he has too many ballots, others still have none as municipal vote looms

Yellowknife's municipal election is now days away, but some residents say they still haven't received their ballots, and another says he has too many.

It comes as the city, for the first time, opted to hold the election primarily by mail-in ballot.

Dwayne Simmons, a city council candidate, said neither he nor his wife have received a ballot yet.

"At this point, it's super concerning," he said.

"I mean, I personally went in and made sure that we were registered, me and my wife, before the deadline. And ours didn't show up."

Simmons worries voter turnout could be down due to ballot delays.

"It's going to be super important that people get out and vote on Monday, even though … there's confusion around that," he said.

"We'll see how all of this shakes out come Monday."

Eligible voters who haven't received a ballot or didn't register can still vote on Monday at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre or at the Multiplex Arena. 

Steve Payne, councillor and council candidate, also expressed his discontent for the city's mail-in ballot plan.

"I am not happy with the mail-in vote system. It would have been easier to vote in person and have mail in for people who request it," Payne wrote. "I've heard about a lot of people who don't even have their ballots yet."

Meanwhile, Yellowknife resident James O'Connor is facing a different problem.

He said he received three ballots in his mailbox — two of which were each in his name, and one for his apartment's previous tenant.

The ballots he got in his name were made out to a "John James O'Connor," a "John O'Connor."

"I guess the city was concerned we might be neck-deep in a COVID outbreak right now, so they went to a touchless voting scheme, but we have to start moving away from these impersonal systems and methods from the past two-plus years and get people back out and socializing a bit," O'Connor told CBC in an email.

"Even if it is just a walk to the neighborhood polling place."

He said he does not intend to use more than one ballot, but worries "this type of scattershot mail out of ballots based on shoddy voter lists is just bad for people's sense of government working properly."

"We're a relatively small community," he wrote. "We should be able to do better than this next time around."

The CBC contacted the City of Yellowknife for comment on the situation but did not hear back by deadline.