Municipal Election FAQ

A person is entitled to be an elector if, on Voting Day, October 24, 2022, they:

• • reside in the local municipality or is the owner or tenant of land in the local municipality, or the spouse of such owner or tenant;
  • is a Canadian citizen;
  • is at least 18 years old; and
  • is not prohibited from voting under subsection 17(3) of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, or otherwise, by law.

Municipal elections are for Mayor, Councillors, and School Board Trustees across the Province of Ontario.

The elections being conducted in Sioux Lookout are for one (1) Mayor* and six (6) Councillors-at-Large, as well as School Board Trustees for the English and French Public and Separate Boards*. Your choices will be based on your declared school board support as filed with Revenue Canada on your income tax forms.

* Please note that in the 2022 Municipal Election, the Mayor and School Board Trustees for all four Boards have been acclaimed. Voters will only be voting for the six (6) Councillor-at-Large seats.

For internet voting:

• Voters will receive a website address and a Personal Identification Number (PIN) in their Voter Information Letter. The website address takes voters to the Sioux Lookout Municipal Elections voting website.  A voter will enter their PIN and date of birth* to authenticate their identity and verify that they are eligible to vote/on the Voters List and have not yet voted.  If authentication is successful, the voter may click on the current election link and a tamper-proof electronic ballot will appear. The voter will indicate their candidate selections by clicking on the appropriate box(es) beside the name(s) of the candidate(s) they wish to vote for.  When their selections are completed, the voter “confirms” their selections and “submits” the ballot.  When the voter submits a ballot, the results are encrypted and kept anonymous. The voter is issued a receipt number and is now blocked from voting in this election again. The system never allows a voter to vote twice.

For telephone voting:

• Voters will receive a toll-free telephone number and Personal Identification Number (PIN) in their Voter Information Letter.  Voters call the phone number and are prompted to authenticate their identity by entering their PIN and date of birth* using a touch-tone dial pad. The system checks whether or not they have voted.  If they have not voted, the system will start to read the list of candidates.  The voter makes their selections, one at a time.  Once voting is completed, the voter is requested to confirm their choices. When the voter confirms a ballot, the results are encrypted and stored anonymously. The voter is issued a receipt number (accessible only online) and is now blocked from voting in this election again. The system never allows a voter to vote twice.

You can vote from the convenience and comfort of your own home or from any computer, laptop, tablet, cell phone, or touch-tone phone. Also see next question.

“Remote Voting Locations” will be established at the locations and during the days and times as shown below.  Voter assistance and equipment will be available at all locations during the times noted:

• • Sioux Lookout Municipal Office, 25 Fifth Avenue, Clerk’s Department, during regular business hours, for the full Voting Period:  10:00 a.m., Monday, October 17 to 8:00 p.m., Monday, October 24 (Voter Help Centre; public voting available)
  • Sioux Area Seniors Activity Centre, 66 Front Street, Monday, October 17, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
  • Sioux Towers, 33 Third Avenue, Monday, October 17, 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., Common Room
  • William A. “Bill” George Extended Care Unit, 75 Fifth Avenue, Tuesday, October 18, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Quiet Room (ECU residents only)
  • Nishnawbe-Gamik Friendship Centre, 52 King Street, Tuesday, October 18, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. (public)
  • Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, 1 Meno Ya Win Way, Wednesday, October 19, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., North Pod Boardroom (patients only)
  • Patricia Plaza, 30 Third Avenue, Wednesday, October 19, 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
  • Cole Terrace, Thursday, October 20, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
  • Hudson Community Hall, 29 Second Street, Thursday, October 20, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Go to https://www.siouxlookoutvotes.ca and follow the “Are you on the voter’s list?” link. Then complete the form to find out if you’re on the Voters List.

If you are not on the list, please visit the Municipal Office for assistance.

You will need your Personal Identification Number (PIN), which can be found in you Voter Information Letter (VIL), and your date of birth.

To vote via the internet, you will need a computer, laptop, tablet or cell phone, and access to the internet.  To vote via telephone, you will need access to a phone with a touch-tone dial pad or a cell phone.

A Voter Information Letter (VIL) contains information you require to Vote in the 2022 Municipal Election, including your Personal Identification Number (PIN) and the list of candidates for each office being elected.

Letters will arrive approximately between September 30 and October 13.

If you have not received a VIL by October 14, please visit the Municipal Office to be added to the Voter’s List.

If you haven’t received a VIL by October 14, you can go to the Municipal Office, 25 Fifth Avenue, for assistance.

If you are not on the Voters List, you will have to be added first, provided you are an eligible elector.  Please bring your ID; for acceptable ID, please visit https://www.siouxlookout.ca/en/news/acceptable-voter-identification-documents.aspx.

Upon confirmation of your identity and eligibility, Election Staff will be able to print a VIL with a PIN.

There could be a few reasons you didn’t get a VIL in the mail:

• Your name was not on the Voters List at the time the VILs were prepared.  Reasons for this might be that:
  • you are new to town; or
  • you have moved within the Municipality and your old address was removed from the Voters List (by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) and your new address was not included on the List.
• A VIL may have been mailed to you and it has been delayed from some reason in the mail system.

Yes!  If you are on the Voters List and would have received your VIL if you were in town:

• As of October 14, you can go to the Municipal Office, 25 Fifth Avenue, for assistance.  (However, if you are leaving prior to the 14^th of October, please contact the Clerk’s Department, 737-2700.)  Upon confirmation of your identify and eligibility, Election Staff will be able to print a new VIL with a PIN.  However, when a new VIL is printed for you, it will destroy the previously-assigned PIN and generate a new one.  Therefore, only the most recently-generated PIN will be usable.  Voters who receive a letter printed at the Municipal Office after mid-September will need to discard the original, mailed letter if it does reach them in time, since the PIN on the mailed letter will have become invalid.

If you were not on the Voters List and were added after the VILs were prepared:

• As of October 14, you can go to the Municipal Office, 25 Fifth Avenue, for assistance.  Upon confirmation of your identify and eligibility, Election Staff will be able to print a VIL with a PIN.

It is possible, but not likely.  If you received more than one VIL/PIN, it is because your name appeared on the Voters List more than once. This rare situation might occur if you changed your place of residence and have been enumerated in both locations or you own more than one property in the voting area (e.g. a house and a cabin).  You are permitted to vote only once in a municipality and you should only cast a vote using the PIN associated with your primary place of residence.  Return the additional VIL/PIN to the Municipal Clerk (Municipal Office) and they will disable this PIN, rendering it unusable for the election, and update the Voters List for the future.

You may also receive additional VIL/PIN for someone else in your household, e.g. a student (18 years or older) who is away at school.  The student is eligible to vote in the election where his/her permanent residence is and also where he/she is attending school.  However, you may not use his/her PIN to vote on his/her behalf if he/she is away at school.  It is illegal to do so.

Try re-entering the PIN and your date of birth again.

If it still doesn’t work and/or the system shows that you have already voted, and you have not, contact the Election Help Desk.  This number is shown on the top right hand side of the voting website.

No.  The system does not track how a particular PIN has voted, only that the PIN has been used to cast a vote.

Simply Voting, the system Sioux Lookout is using for the internet and telephone voting service, was designed from the ground-up to eliminate the risk of electoral fraud. Voters who by-pass authentication or have already voted are denied access to the ballot, and ballots are checked for validity before being accepted. Nobody could ever find out what a particular voter has voted since when a voter confirms a ballot, the results are encrypted and stored anonymously.

Communication between your computer and the voting website is encrypted using a sha256 cryptographic algorithm, which has never been compromised. Simply Voting’s servers are "hardened" and are routinely subjected to PCI Compliance security scans. Their application code adheres to guidelines set out by the Open Web Application Security Project.

Stealing and opening another person’s mail is illegal.  It is also illegal to represent yourself as another person and steal their right to vote in an election.  Both of these acts are illegal and have penalties defined by law.

If you know someone has voted your PIN illegally, you should report it to an Election Official.  You can obtain a replacement PIN to cast your vote by presenting yourself to an Election Official (at the Voter Help Centre and the Municipal Office), swearing/affirming an affidavit that the PIN assigned to you was not voted by you but by someone else, and providing proper identification.