VOTING day may be tomorrow, but even if you haven't done anything to prepare yet you can still register and cast a ballot.
To be eligible, you must be at least 18, a Canadian citizen, and have lived in B.C. for six months and the municipality for at least 30 days. Landed immigrants are not entitled to vote.
If you haven't received a card explaining how and where to vote in the mail yet, odds are you're not registered to vote. To register, bring two pieces of ID that prove identity and residence. One must include a signature; examples include a driver's licence, care card, utility bill, rent receipt or car insurance. Those who own property can show a tax notice or certificate of title.
Polls are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Bedside voting will be offered to Lions Gate Hospital patients.
Each municipality's website has information about candidates, with maps of voting locations. The candidate information for the entire North Shore is online at votenorthshore.ca, while the front page of each municipality's web site has links to their own election pages.
Once inside the voting booth, the ballot lists the names of candidates alphabetically in the City of North Vancouver and the District of West Vancouver. However, the District of North Vancouver candidate order on the ballot has been determined by chance in a draw for position.
New voters might be surprised to see they won't be ticking a box at all. Instead, there are two arrows next to a candidate's name, and voters simply draw a line between the arrows of those they wish to vote for.
Mistakes aren't a problem - polling staff can supply a new ballot. The ballots are all counted by machine, which is the reason for that voting method.
Many voters have already cast their ballot this year at advance voting stations. As of 11 a.m. on Wednesday, 645 voters had voted in the city's advance voting with two days still to go. That was already higher than 2008's total of 525, which city clerk Robyn Anderson said was likely because this year's voting was held in the library instead of city hall and there were more days of advanced voting available.
In West Vancouver, however, advanced voting was down this year: 1,057 compared to 1,213 in 2008. Statistics from North Vancouver district will not be available until after the election, however a spokeswoman said that anecdotally it appeared advance voting was up.
