ARICHAT – The man in charge of Richmond County’s municipal elections is hoping that COVID-19 won’t keep people from voting, despite the municipality’s refusal to consider alternatives to paper ballots such as e-voting or telephone voting.

Former municipal councilor Clair Rankin is back for his second stint as returning officer for the county’s municipal vote. The St. Peter’s-based small businessman also oversaw the county-level elections in 2016, the first year that the municipality elected a five-member council instead of the ten-member council that had been in place since 1991.

Rankin also served as councilor for the former District 8, comprising the St. Peter’s-Samsonville area, for a cumulative decade between 1988 and 2008. He cites this experience, combined with his concern over a municipal expense-account scandal that rocked Richmond County in 2015, as the key reasons for his desire to ensure a smooth vote for county residents.

“I applied for the position four years ago because I was royally ticked off with what was happening with that council,” Rankin told TELILE 24/7 host Adam Cooke.

“I spent ten years around that table, and I had a lot of pride in what I did. And to see the council of four years ago act the way that they did really hurt me. Richmond County was on the national news, and I thought, ‘There has to be a better way.’ So I wanted the job four years ago to try to set things straight and to make sure that the election ran smoothly.”

While he suspects that e-voting and telephone voting options will come into effect in Richmond County for future elections, Rankin expressed optimism that this fall’s paper-ballot vote will maintain the high voter turnout that has typically marked municipal, provincial and federal elections in Richmond County. The turnout for these votes has traditionally hovered around 70 per cent over the past decade.

However, Rankin also expects to take on a heavier workload for his job as returning officer, given the need to find extra venues to accommodate the required number of polling stations while respecting Nova Scotia’s rules for proper social distancing during the pandemic period.