Voter Eligibility

Eligible voters for municipal elections must be: 

• A Canadian citizen and at least 18 years old
• A resident OR a property owner or tenant OR the spouse of an owner or tenant in the municipality

The Township of James will have a Voters List available September 1st, after that you may visit the office to update or add your information to the voters list.

You are eligible to vote in the election for municipal council if you meet all of the following requirements:

you are a Canadian citizen
you are aged 18 or older
you qualify to vote in the municipality

There are three ways that you can qualify to vote in a municipality:

As a resident elector if you live in the municipality. You may own, rent, live in shared accommodation where you do not pay rent or live in the municipality but do not have a fixed address. Being a resident elector is the most common type of eligibility.

As a non-resident elector if you own or rent property in a municipality, but it’s not the one where you live. While you can be a resident elector in only one municipality (with the exception of students), you can be a non-resident elector in any other municipality (or municipalities) where you own or rent property.
As the spouse of a non-resident elector if your spouse owns or rents property in the municipality or municipalities other than the one where you live.

Neither you nor your spouse qualify as a non-resident elector if you do not personally own or rent the property in the municipality. For example, if the property is owned by your business or your cottage is owned by a trust, you would not qualify as a non-resident elector.

If you are not certain whether you qualify as a non-resident elector, you should check with the municipal clerk. Under the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, municipal clerks are responsible for conducting elections, and must be satisfied that a person is eligible to vote before adding their name to the voters’ list. Municipal clerks may seek legal advice if they are not certain of a person’s eligibility to vote.

Students
There is a special rule for students who may be living away from home while they attend school. If you are a student and consider your “home” to be the place where you live when you are not attending school (that is, you plan on returning there), then you are eligible to vote in both your “home” municipality and in the municipality where you live while attending school.

Voting in more than one municipality
If you qualify to vote in more than one municipality, you can vote in all of those municipal elections. For example, if you qualify as a resident elector in one municipality, and a non-resident elector in three other municipalities, you can vote in all four of those municipal elections.