Guelph city clerk's office staff to help at Toronto mayoral election voting station Monday

As Torontonians go to the polls Monday to choose a new mayor, one Etobicoke voting station will be staffed by City of Guelph employees.

A few weeks ago, the City of Toronto reached out to other municipalities to ask for help in staffing election polling stations. Nine employees from Guelph's city clerk's office will help out.

Toronto is holding a mayoral byelection because former mayor John Tory stepped down in February after admitting to having an extramarital affair.

There are 102 candidates in the running to be Toronto's next mayor.

Guelph city clerk Stephen O'Brien says running a mayoral byelection after having just run a full election last fall is a "pretty big task."

"A byelection is not a small undertaking and a mayoral byelection, because it's citywide in any jurisdiction … is effectively like administering a whole other complete election," he said.

The Guelph employees will join staff from other municipalities as well as private citizens to work at the polling stations.

"Municipal clerks offices are very well connected. We've got a strong association that sort of underpins our connections and we offered to help out," he said.

"We see the clerk's office as sort of really foundational to local democracy and local governance. It's something that we do day in and day out," O'Brien added. "We're proud champions of democracy."

Voting on Monday runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.