Elections Nunavut works with couriers, airlines to get mail-in ballots back

Elections Nunavut has been monitoring the ongoing postal strike and says it is working with northern airlines and different courier companies to ensure mail-in ballots are received in time to be counted in the territorial election on Oct. 27.

Requests for mail-in ballots, which opened on Sept. 22 and can be filed on the Elections Nunavut website, must be made by Oct. 20, said Jason Koblogina-Mercer, a returning officer for Cambridge Bay.

A form, which can also be obtained and printed from the Elections Nunavut website, can be faxed or emailed if a constituent would prefer a hard copy.

Elections Nunavut will accept the special ballots until Oct. 27 at 5 p.m. local time, the online Guide to the Nunavut Elections Act says.

Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers went on strike Sept. 25, putting a stop to mail service across the country until Oct. 10. After two weeks of a nationwide strike, union members shifted to rotating strikes last Saturday.

It could take up to three weeks for postal service to return to normal, Xan Moffatt-Toews, president of the Alberta, N.W.T. and Nunavut branch of the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association, which represents most Canada Post workers in Nunavut, said in an interview last week.

Canada Post did not respond to emailed questions about the possible impact the strike could have on Nunavut’s election.

Nunavut’s chief electoral officer, Kiran Situt, declined a request for comment on the impact the postal strike might have on the election.