St. John’s city council has endorsed changes to the way residents will vote in municipal elections, one of which takes effect this fall.

The three changes were recommended in the city’s Municipal By-Elections Report, which reviewed the two most recent elections of councillors Greg Noseworthy and Tom Davis.

The recommendations include mandatory voter pre-registration, pursuing legislative changes to allow electronic and vote-by-phone options, and cutting the number of satellite drop-off centres in each ward to one, or pre-pandemic levels.

The latter is the only change for this fall, but could be tweaked in the more rural Ward 5, with concerns raised over the distance to travel. The other two, including online and phone voting and mandatory registration, have been accepted but were deferred until the province signs off.

Mayor Danny Breen says the changes are long overdue.

“I think that electronic and telephone voting, the time has come, and probably past the time actually when it should’ve been implemented,” he said. “I think it’s the next step in our voter engagement and hopefully the province will see fit to give us the opportunity to develop those systems.”

Ontario and Nova Scotia permit municipal internet voting, upon approval by individual city councils.