The Municipal Elections Act, 1996 (MEA) permits municipalities to make use of alternative voting methods for Municipal and School Board Elections, including but not limited to: the use of internet voting, voting by mail, voting by telephone, electronic tabulators or any combination thereof. This is outlined in Section 42(1) of the MEA, which states that the council of a local municipality may pass By-laws:

1. authorizing the use of voting and vote-counting equipment such as voting machines, voting recorders or optical scanning vote tabulators; and
2. authorizing electors to use an alternative voting method, such as voting by mail or by telephone, that does not require electors to attend at a voting place in order to vote.

Staff are preparing a report to Council to get direction on which voting methods they would like to utilize in the 2026 Municipal and School Board Elections. In preparation, staff would like to survey residents on their preferred voting methods.