Municipal election candidates showing early interest

Election officials on Prince Edward Island are getting calls from people interested in running for the upcoming municipal elections on November 3, even though the election wont be called until the end of the month.

Nominations can't betaken officially until September 29. Candidates in the four largest municipalities then have until October 10 to get the paperwork in to returning officers.

Those candidates require 10 signatures from the area where they are running and they have to pay a $100 fee, except in Stratford, which doesn't charge a fee.

Gary McLeod is the chief electoral officer with Elections P.E.I. and has been taking calls from interested parties.

We do have a lot of people that have contacted us looking for the information on what the process is, he said.

We have a lot of people who have obviously in the paper have declared that they want to seek that nomination. The official process does not actually start until September 29.

Next stage is to hire staff

The next stage will be to hire staff before the end of the month to go door-to-door in Charlottetown, Summerside, Cornwall, and Stratford to confirm the voters lists.

Elections P.E.I. runs the elections in the four largest communities, but McLeod says elections are being held in every municipality in the province.

The nomination deadline for several towns is also October 10. People running in elections in smaller communities have until October 20.

People who are thinking about running should check with their municipality to make sure they know the correctdeadline.