Cambridge city council has officially voted to hold a by-election to choose the next member of council to fill the vacancy in Ward 1.
After councillor Donna Reid passed away on Aug. 13, city council was tasked with the responsibility of passing a new by-law that would decide how to fill the empty spot on the Cambridge horseshoe.
In a unanimous vote, council passed a by-law that would hold a by-election with advanced voting day starting on Nov. 1.
Council was provided with a number of different options on how to replace coun. Reid including: a by-election where votes are collected through online voting, in-person with tabulators or counted manually and a combination of the three.
Unanimously, a combination of internet voting and in-person ballots counted by hand were passed, costing the city approximately $50,000.
The funds will be coming from the Election Reserve that currently has a balance of $61,970.
Members of the community can also chose to call the clerks office and request a city staff member come to their home and help with their voting.
Out of approximately 13,369 electors in Ward 1, 3,158 cast a vote in the 2022 municipal election. City staff are confident they can handle all of the votes that come in manually via in-person voting.
In the 2020 by-election that saw current Ward 7 councillor, Scott Hamilton become elected, it had a budget of $89,000 using paper and tabulator voting.
Hamilton who grew close with Reid, was not able to attend the meeting due to a family emergency.
He did however provided a statement for the public and his colleagues around the Cambridge council horseshoe.
"The residents of Ward 1 deserve a voice and this includes those who supported councillor Reid," wrote Hamilton. " I am hopeful that some sort of mix of online and in-person voting can occur to catch the larger swath of voters and to send the message to voters that we want to provide every single possible option,"
Hamilton who was also elected through a by-election supports this method as it gives the power back to the community and allows them to chose who represents them.
"She was as tough as nails and always tried to do the right thing," said Hamilton to CambridgeToday at a recent event. "Even up until her death, she was always trying to fight for the community and what she believed in."
Advanced voting days for the 2023 by-election for Ward one starts on Nov. 1 and Nov. 4 with voting day taking place on Nov. 13 at four separate locations still to be decided.
Official results will be posted the next day on Nov. 14 and the new Ward 1 councillor will be sworn in on Nov. 28.
"It looks like we have en election folks," commented Mayor Jan Liggett after the vote.