B.C. NDP Leader David Eby speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in Coquitlam, B.C., on Oct. 18.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
B.C.’s election has already seen a record in advance voting ahead of Saturday’s main event, but an atmospheric river of rain expected for much of the province’s South Coast could set back long-planned efforts by Elections BC to reverse a worsening trend of low voter turnout.
Andrew Watson, senior director of communications for Elections BC, said more than 28 per cent – just over a million – of all registered electors have already voted, but that doesn’t mean more people in total will vote before polls close Saturday evening at 8 p.m. PST.
He said the agency has been aiming to make voting more accessible: In the past provincial election, turnout was less that 54 per cent of the 3,524,812 eligible voters. But the rain won’t help.
A 2018 study by a pair of University of Ottawa academics on voter turnout in five federal elections this century found each millimetre of precipitation decreases the number of voters by more than 0.1 percentage points, while higher temperatures triggered more people to cast a ballot.
Mr. Watson said his agency has taken steps to protect the province’s 1,243 voting places from being affected by the wet, windy weather.
“We’ve been working with BC Hydro to make sure they’re aware of where all of our voting locations are so that if there are any power outages, they can be responded to quickly,” he said. “We also have manual backup procedures at voting places in case election officials need to revert to a paper-based process.”
Environment Canada issued a weather alert Friday estimating that 40 to 70 millimetres could fall in and around Vancouver on Saturday. Mountainous areas of Vancouver Island, meanwhile, could receive more than 200 millimetres of precipitation, with the heaviest torrents expected in the morning and early afternoon. B.C.’s River Forecast Centre has also issued a flood watch for the south and central coasts.
Elections BC is using technology to identify voters more seamlessly and to count ballots much faster.
Workers at polling stations are able to identify voters using an encrypted electronic system that allows voting lists to be updated in close to real time. Anton Boegman, B.C.’s Chief Electoral Officer, told reporters during a press briefing shortly after the campaign began that this information will also be shared with political parties to support their efforts to get more voters to the polls.
Conservative Leader John Rustad takes photos with a baby during a campaign stop in North Vancouver on Oct. 18.ETHAN CAIRNS/The Canadian Press
In years past, staff had to use paper to mark voters as having participated, which meant it took much longer to share this information with parties, he said.
To count ballots, electronic tabulators will be deployed across the province. The system was tested during by-elections in each of the past two years. Mr. Watson said the agency’s goal is to have about half the votes counted and reported to the public within a half hour of polls closing Saturday evening and the majority within an hour.
Official results have typically begun to stream out after about 45 minutes, he said. In the 2017 election, the full vote count took a tense two weeks because of tens of thousands of absentee ballots. That contest eventually saw the three-MLA Green Party agree to support the New Democrats, ending 16 years of BC Liberal governments.
Voters will elect 93 members of the Legislative Assembly, with a single party requiring 47 seats to form a majority government. That is six more legislators than in the past election, because six additional seats were added to major population centres in southern B.C.
Four are in the Metro Vancouver communities of Langley, Surrey, Burnaby, and Vancouver, one is in the Victoria suburb of Langford, and another is in the urban core of Kelowna.
With reports from Justine Hunter and The Canadian Press