City Recognized For 2020 By-Election

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The City of Windsor has been recognized with an E.A. Danby Award for delivering the 2020 Ward 7 by-election during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO) presented the E.A. Danby Award at their annual conference last week. The award is given out annually to acknowledge a municipality’s dedication to public service excellence and for introducing innovative ways of delivering service to their community.

“Planning and executing a by-election during the ever changing pandemic was a challenge that we enthusiastically accepted,” says Terri Knight Lepain, Manager of Records and Elections. “With the health and safety of everyone involved being top of mind, we were able to deliver an innovative, safe and democratically sound by-election to the voters in Ward 7. New ideas, such as drive-through voting, one accessible polling location and pandemic protocols, were all possible due to the collaboration with the other recipient municipalities.”

Originally scheduled for April 27, 2020, the Ward 7 by-election was postponed in mid-March due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. After careful planning and ongoing consultation with Cambridge, Ottawa and Pelham, the Ward 7 by-election was successfully held on October 5, 2020. Voter turnout was 28%, which is higher than the City’s most recent by-election, held in 2013, and feedback from voters, candidates and election workers was very positive. These new innovations and the lessons learned will be at the forefront as planning for the next regular election on October 24, 2022, gets underway.

Also receiving the award are the municipalities of Cambridge, Ottawa and Pelham.