NTI to give beneficiaries $100 vouchers for showing up to polls
Individuals do not need to vote to be eligible for money
Terrence Kango carries his son, Mathew Kango, to the polling station at the Iqaluit cadet hall to vote in the 2024 Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. election. It’s election day for beneficiaries who are picking Kango said he was not motivated by NTI’s offer of a $100 voucher for any registered voter who shows up. “I was going to vote anyway,” he said. (Photo by Daron Letts)
Inuit beneficiaries of the Nunavut Agreement are eligible to receive $100 grocery vouchers for showing up at a polling station during the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. presidential byelection on May 27.
Beneficiaries can receive a voucher at polling stations during both advance voting and on election day, said Annie Thomlinson, the organization’s communications director, in an email on Tuesday.
“For efficiency purposes, vouchers will be distributed at the same time as ballots are issued,” Thomlinson said.
Receiving a voucher is not dependent on casting a vote.
“Poll clerks will not monitor whether an individual chooses to vote after receiving their ballot and voucher,” Thomlinson said.
Polling stations will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday for advance voting.
Mobile stations — meaning a voter can contact their community liaison officer to arrange a time to cast a ballot — will be available Thursday and Friday, as well as Monday and Tuesday of next week.
For its 2024 presidential election, NTI offered Inuit beneficiaries a $100 voucher for a gift card as a way to encourage voter participation.
Voter turnout was 66.7 per cent in 2024 compared to 17.5 per cent in 2021, when there was no incentive in place to encourage voters.
There are 10 candidates running for the presidency.
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