Up to 22 per cent of voters in the North Shore’s four ridings are planning to vote by mail this election, as indicated by the number of requests for mail-in ballot packages.
Elections B.C. released a list Wednesday with details of how many voters in each provincial riding have requested a mail-in ballot.
Province-wide, an estimated 699,000 mail-in ballots have been requested and 680,309 of those packages had been issued by Tuesday evening. An estimated 138,800 completed mail-in ballots – or about 20 per cent of those issued – have been returned so far, according to Elections B.C.
That doesn’t include ballots that are in transit in the mail or ballots that have been dropped off at district electoral offices.
On the North Shore, the percentage of mail-in ballots requested ranges from a low of just fewer than 17 per cent in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky to a high of 27 per cent in North Vancouver Seymour.
A total of 37,714 people have requested ballots in the four North Shore ridings, which have approximately 170,539 registered voters.
The large number of mail-in ballots requests mean it’s possible not everyone will receive packages in time to mail them back by the recommended deadline of Oct. 17, according to Elections B.C.
Voters in that situation can return their mail-in package in person to a designated drop-off location, or ditch the plan to vote by mail and instead vote in person during advance voting, which starts this week, or on Election Day.
And while voting early is recommended, voting often isn’t: voters who have requested a vote-by-mail package must destroy it if they choose to vote in person.
The large number of anticipated mail-in ballots means it’s possible the outcome of the election won’t actually be known on election night.
While votes cast on Election Day and in advance polls from people who voted in their district are counted on election night, absentee ballots – including mail-in ballots - don’t get counted until at least 13 days after the election.
All absentee and mail-in ballots must be manually verified before they are counted – a process that could take more than two weeks.
