Enumeration 2007

Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
February 22, 2007

Enumeration 2007

The Chief Electoral Officer, Charles Furey, has announced that an enumeration of all eligible voters in the province will be carried out this spring.

The work is expected to start in early-May and take approximately 10 weeks to complete. Enumerators will go door-to-door to every residence in the province, gathering names, addresses and birthdates of all eligible voters. To vote, a person must be at least 18 years old and living in the province on polling day. The information gathered by the enumerators will be the basis for a new Voters List for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr. Furey says the money for the enumeration had to be approved now because preparations for the enumeration have to begin immediately. Mr. Furey says if his office had to wait until next year�s provincial budget is approved by the House of Assembly it would be too late to prepare for and conduct an enumeration in time for the next provincial general election, set for October 9.

The Chief Electoral Officer commends the Speaker and the House of Assembly for moving expeditiously to approve the funds to modernize the province�s voters list. That modernization will also lead to the establishment of a Voters Registry so that information gathered during the enumeration can be continually updated. This will be vital for future by-elections and general elections and means there should not be a need for another full enumeration.

The last full enumeration of voters in the province was done in October 1994.

There have been some revisions to voters� lists in certain districts since then.

However, Mr. Furey says there has been such a shift in the province�s population since 1994, with people moving away and many others moving within the province, that a full enumeration is needed again. As well, Mr. Furey points out that the 2006 Electoral Districts Boundaries Commission recommended changes to the boundaries of all 44-districts on the island part of the province. The commission recommended the districts in Labrador be left unchanged. The government accepted the report, making it necessary to change voters lists to reflect the new boundaries. This work will now be coordinated with the full enumeration in producing the new voters list for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mr. Furey also points out that the voters list drawn up following the enumeration will be used by municipalities and school boards when they hold their elections and the information will be shared with the federal government for use in future elections.

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Media contact:
Charles Furey
Chief Electoral Officer
39 Hallett Crescent
St. John�s, NL A1B 4C4
709-729-0712
Fax: 709-729-0679
charlesfurey@gov.nl.ca

ENUMERATION 2007
FACT SHEET

Staff:
48 returning officers; approximately 1,800 enumerators; Elections Newfoundland and Labrador office staff.

Time lines:

Ordering and preparation of supplies (office equipment, papers, etc.) begins immediately.
Returning officers are hired and trained by late April.
Returning officers open an office in each district and hire enumerators.
Enumerators are trained and the door-to-door canvas begins early May.
Door-to-door work takes approximately two weeks.
One week for review: additions, deletions, changes.
Six weeks for compilation of data at Elections Newfoundland and Labrador.
One week for printing. (Under existing legislation, copies of the list are available to the leaders of all recognized political parties once the writ for an election has been issued. Individual candidates can obtain copies of the list once the official nomination deadline has passed, which is generally about 10 days before the election date.)

2007 02 22 4:15 p.m.

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