Municipal Election Resources & F.A.Q.

 Anyone can vote in a Municipal Election who, on the day of the election, is:

• 18 years of age or older
• a Canadian citizen; and
• either a resident of the municipality or a property owner or tenant or the spouse or same sex partner of an owner or tenant in the municipality during a specified time just before the election.

Your name must be on the voters’ list in order for you to cast a ballot.

 The following individuals cannot vote in a Municipal Election:

• a person serving a sentence of imprisonment in a penal or correctional institution;
• a corporation; or
• a person convicted of a corrupt practice for an election held within four years of voting day.

A person who is acting as an executor or in any other representative capacity (e.g., power of attorney), cannot vote on behalf of the person they are representing unless they have been appointed as a voting proxy.

Voter Information

Elections Ontario is responsible for collecting the information of residents in Ontario (name, date of birth, citizenship and school support) in order to create a Preliminary List of Electors for Municipal and School Board Elections. Municipalities will use the Preliminary List of Electors to prepare their Voters Lists for the 2026 Municipal and School Board Elections.

One of the ways Elections Ontario collects this information is through www.registertovoteon.ca. Here, Ontarians can add their name and the names of other members of their household to a secure database and confirm or update their information. This helps ensure that each municipality has the most accurate information possible for the 2026 Municipal and School Board Elections.

On or after September 1, 2026, you must apply to your municipal clerk to update or add your information to the voters’ list. You have until the close of voting on October 26, 2026, to apply for any changes. If you are applying to add your name to the voters’ list, you will be asked to provide proof that you are eligible to vote.

School Support Information

MPAC remains responsible for collecting school support information for municipal elections. To learn more about school support or to change your school support designation, please visit the MPAC website.

If a by-election has been called in your municipality, you should contact your municipal clerk for information about adding your name to the voters’ list or correcting your information.

Voting instructions will be included in the Voter Instruction Letter mailed to each eligible elector on the official Elector List. Included in this information are instructions on how to access the voting system. 

Telephone Voting (October 13, 2026 to October 26, 2026):

Voters can cast their ballot via phone (telephone or cellular phone) by calling a toll free number. 

Internet Voting (October 13, 2026 to October 26, 2026):

Voters using a personal computer can access the secure online voting system through a designated website to cast their ballot.

Paper Ballots (Monday, October 26, 2026 between 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.):

Voters can cast their ballots in-person at the Township Office (894 South Street, Warsaw). 

No. You must complete the voting by either Telephone, Internet or Paper Ballot on your own. That being said, you may offer assistance to friends and family, with their permission, but ultimately the secrecy of the ballot is paramount, and you must not interfere with the voting process. Voting assistance will be available during the voting period at Township of Douro-Dummer Municipal Office (894 South Street, Warsaw On., K0L 3A0) during regular office hours.

Note: It is an offence to utilize another elector's PIN number and thereby vote multiple times.

No. Once a vote has been confirmed it cannot be changed. 

This process is the same as dropping the ballot into the ballot box in a traditional paper based election ensuring complete voter anonymity and secrecy of ballot. 

The system does not know how the ballot was voted; only that the PIN was used in the election to cast a vote and thus it cannot be removed from the vote count

Yes. A Help Centre will be available at the Township Office (894 South Street, Warsaw). 

The Help Centre will have telephone and internet access available for voting during the Voting Period. This is not to be considered a “Polling Station”. 

At the Help Centre voters can request:

• Additions to the Voter's List
• Deletions from the Voter's List
• Corrections to the Voter's List
• Additional assistance or clarification about the election process

Help Centre During Election Period

Help Centre will be available during regular office hours: 

• Monday to Thursday:
  • 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
• Friday:
  • 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday: 
  • Closed

Help Centre on Election Day 

On Election Day, Monday October 26, 2026, the Help Centre will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

No. 

The Township of Douro-Dummer does not host or coordinate any all candidate debates, meetings or events. 

Voter Information Letters will begin being mailed on September 30, 2026.

Each eligible elector will receive a letter containing a unique PIN. Letters will be mailed to allow for delivery at least three (3) to five (5) days before the first day of voting.

If you are an eligible elector and on the official Elector List, but you did not get a Voter Information Letter in the mail by the start of the election period, you can request a replacement Voter Information Letter.

If the Election Official’s records indicate you were sent a Voter Information Letter in the mail then the original Voter Information Letter will be disabled and cannot be used to cast a vote in the election. 

A replacement Voter Information Letter will be issued to you if the original Voter Information Letter has not been voted and you provide appropriate identification.

If an elector loses or misplaces their Voter Information Letter they should contact the Township of Douro-Dummer. 

The Election Official can decide to replace the missing Voter Information Letter if it has not already been voted. They will determine if a voter has to travel to the Township Office and sign a form, and then receive a replacement for the missing Voter Information Letter or if a replacement Voter Information Letter can be issued.

The original lost or missing Voter Information Letter will be disabled and it will not be able to be voted in the election.

Help us improve the Voters' List for the next election: If an elector receives multiple Voter Information Letters (VILs), it may be because there are differences in your elector records on the Voters' List, including:

• Different last/first names (eg: married, and birth names)
• Different birth dates on the voters' list
• Different addresses
• And/or a combination of the above

The Clerk’s Office conducts an extensive review of possible duplicates identified (flagged by our Voters’ List software VoterView) before issuing the Voter Information Letters (VILs). Election staff remove duplicate names where it is appropriate, but they may have kept both electors if they appeared to be twin siblings, or two different people with very similar names/birthdates.

This process has been completed in every past Township of Douro-Dummer Election. However, each election rare cases of duplicates are discovered following the initial mailing.

What to do with a duplicate? Electors should contact the Elections Office (705-652-8392 ext. 224) and let us know right away. We will deactivate the duplicate Voter Information Letter (by deleting duplicate elector profile) as soon as possible to ensure the extra PIN cannot be used to vote twice.

Why does this most commonly happen? Our experience with duplicate Voter Information Letters (VILs) is that one of the duplicate letters is usually associated with an invalid date of birth in our Voters’ List software. If this is the case, the 'duplicate elector' would not be able to vote with the second PIN, as all electors must enter a valid birth date to vote (the voting system will not allow someone to leave the year of birth blank for security purposes). So even if someone receives two Voter Information Letter (VIL), they likely won't be able to vote with one of them as the date of birth would be unknown.

What happens if I can vote twice using two Township of Douro-Dummer VILs?  All electors when voting must accept the oath that states in part: “Section 89 of the Municipal Elections Act, 1996, as amended, provides that a person is guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to a fine of not more than $25,000, if they…votes more times than this Act allows;”. If an elector votes twice in Douro-Dummer with either a duplicate Voter Information Letter (VIL), or any another Voter Information Letter (VIL), they are violating the Municipal Elections Act.

Someone moved away that received a PIN Letter at my house: Electors who received Voter Information Letter from family members who have moved away should be advised to send the letters back in the mail “Return to Sender-Moved”.