Organization : Elections Nova Scotia
Facility : Register of Electors
Province : Nova Scotia
Country : Canada
Register of Electors : https://electionsnovascotia.ca/voters/registry-of-electors
Home Page : https://electionsnovascotia.ca/home
Register of Electors :
** Under the Elections Act, the Chief Electoral Officer is required to establish a Register of Electors.
** This replaces what was called the “permanent list of electors” and captures Elections Nova Scotia’s existing practice of registering eligible electors in Nova Scotia and keeping their information and address current in a register to subsequently be listed on a list of electors used at a provincial election.
** Elections Nova Scotia uses the Register of Electors to maintain the information required to carry out its legislated mandate only.
** The Register of Electors includes the name, date of birth, sex, civic address, mailing information and whether the elector voted in the latest election.
** The elector’s civic address determines the electoral district and polling division in which they reside and the polling location where they vote.
** The Act specifies that every registered elector may be a resident of only one place at a time.
** This provision now also applies to university and college students who have the choice to register themselves as either residing at their family home or at a residence while attending an educational institution at the date of the writ.
** This ensures an accurate list of electors and one vote per person at the electoral district of their choice .
Privacy and security of information :
** Provisions for safeguarding the privacy of the information in the Register have been strengthened in the Elections Act.
** The Act specifies the information that may be disclosed by the Chief Electoral Officer to municipalities and school boards for their electoral purposes and that it may be shared with Elections Canada.
** It also limits the information that may be disclosed to registered parties, independent members of the House of Assembly and candidates during an election.
** All such information must be used only for electoral purposes and it is an offence to use the information for other purposes.
** To protect the personal information of electors, the Act obliges school boards and candidates to destroy all lists of electors received during an election and any copies of the list of electors provided to others by or on their behalf within ten days of the close of the polls on election day.
** Similarly, municipalities must confirm to the CEO that all the elector information provided by the municipality to others, including a candidate nominated at a municipal election, has been used only for election administration purposes.
Who Can Vote :
If you are a Canadian citizen who is 18 years or older on election day and have lived in Nova Scotia for the six months or more before the day the election is called, then you have the right to vote. It’s as simple as that.
Election Basics :
On election day, you go to the polling station in your polling location and cast your vote for the candidate of your choice running in your electoral district.
Provincial Elections :
In a provincial election, you have the opportunity to vote for the registered party or person you want to represent you in the House of Assembly. The leader of the winning party becomes the premier of the province. All elected persons are known as Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs. Nova Scotia is divided into 51 electoral districts. For each of the districts, there is a corresponding seat in our Legislative Assembly (also called our House of Assembly). These districts are further divided into polling divisions. Each polling division usually includes 250-450 voters. On election day, you go to the location of your polling station and cast your vote for the candidate of your choice running in your electoral district. When the polls are closed, all the votes in your polling division are counted. These are then added to the results from all the other polling divisions in your electoral district, as well as the write-in ballots and advance polls. When the grand total is counted, the candidate with the majority of votes from that electoral district gets a seat in the Legislative Assembly, and becomes an MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly). The party with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly becomes the governing party. You would commonly call this the party in power.
By-Elections :
You may also have the opportunity to vote in what is known as a by-election. A by-election sometimes happens between general elections to fill a seat left vacant if an MLA has resigned, been expelled, or died during a government’s time in office. A by-election takes place only in the electoral district where there is a vacant seat, that is, no MLA. Most other procedures are the same as in a general election.
Plebiscites :
Over the history of our province, voters just like you have been called to vote on plebiscite questions ranging from whether cities and towns should amalgamate to whether liquor should be allowed in Nova Scotia at all. A plebiscite is a vote on one specific question and the result of the vote can change a piece of legislation or can make something legal, like the sale of liquor, which was formerly illegal.