The City of Grand Forks has set a date for the byelection to replace Rod Zielinski as councillor.
The current schedule now has the election set for Nov. 28, moving it up considerably from the previously planned date.
Initially, the election date was estimated to be held on Jan. 28, based on business days, however it is in fact 80 calendar days, which required moving the dates forward to avoid the election falling into December.
The byelection is required to fall within 80 days of the selection of a Chief Election Officer, which will now be on Sept. 14 instead of the initially considered Oct. 4.
A by-election was not included in the 2020 budget, and will require funds to be reallocated.
The nomination period for election candidates is scheduled to be from Oct. 13 to 23. Candidates will be declared on Nov. 2, with the campaign period running until Nov. 27.
The city is also changing the election bylaw, reducing the number of mandatory advance polls for elections from two to one.
This will allow the city to have their one required advance poll on Nov. 18 for the by-election. City staff noted that the costs saved by this may be balanced by potential increases due to COVID-19.
Council will be considering additional referendum questions to add to the ballot, which would help make the byelection more cost effective.