By Bill Atwood
Times-Chronicle
As British Columbians prepare for next month’s election, Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman expressed confidence that the vote will happen safely and effectively.
“I have a high level of confidence in the electoral process we have put in place, in our field teams, and in staff at elections BC headquarters to administer a safe election,” said Boegman, speaking during a teleconference Tuesday.
“I have a high degree of confidence in the guidance we have received from Dr. (Bonnie) Henry’s office, and in the approach that’s been put in place for this election,” he said.
The election will likely see an increase in mail-in voting. Surveys conducted over the summer indicated that between 35 and 40 per cent of British Columbians expressed an interest in voting by mail. According to Boegman, there were 20,000 requests for mail-in ballots in less than 24 hours after the election was called. Mail-in votes typically represent around one per cent of the ballots cast.
Conditions surrounding the scrutiny of mail-in ballots have also been relaxed, especially given the fact that many voters will receive their mail-in packages before candidate nominations close on Oct 2. In this case, voters are encouraged to write in the candidate or party of their choice.
“Certainly, in a write-in ballot, there is a greater risk that the voter could put something that is not correct on that ballot,” said Boegman.
“Our instructions are very clear around this. But . . . we do have a lot of ability to look at the individual marks on the ballot, and if there is, for instance, a spelling error, but it’s still clear what the voter’s intent is, then we will accept that ballot as a vote cast for that candidate. So we do have flexibility,” Boegman said.
Mail-in ballots must be returned to the district office by 8 p.m. PT on Oct 24.
This election will also see an increase in phone voting, an option only available to the least mobile voters in the province. This was first introduced in the 2017 election, with more than 1000 people casting their ballots this way.
“We believe it is an excellent opportunity for voters who cannot vote independently but provides us with much more flexibility in this election as a possible use in acute care hospitals. For individuals who are self-isolating, and other individuals who meet these new criteria,” Boegman said.
Boegman explained that while there will be additional capacity to take votes by phone, it is yet unknown how many people will call in their vote.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry was asked if it makes sense to hold an election now, instead of waiting until next spring, especially with the recent rise in COVID-19 cases across the province.
“It’s not my job to call an election, that is part of our democratic political process. And those decisions were made with the knowledge of what was going on,” she said.
“It’s my job to make sure that we can continue to do the important things in our community that we need to do.”
Dr. Henry also emphasized that as the pandemic has been so unpredictable, experts don’t know what the spring will look like.
“We cannot predict what our winter is going to look like or what the spring is going to look like. My focus right now is ensuring that we continue to respond to this pandemic,” she pointed said.
“I will continue to focus all of our energies on making sure that we’re doing everything we can to manage this virus, while we are ensuring that important things for the wellness of our community continue, and that includes people going back to work, going back to school, and having important functions of our democratic process, like elections whenever they occur.”
Dr. Henry and elections BC have been preparing for a provincial election since the pandemic began.
“To be clear work has not been because we were expecting an election. But because we knew COVID-19 would be in our communities for some time to come. And we needed to be ready whether it was municipal, provincial or federal elections that might come,” she said.
With the increase in mail-in voting it is possible there will be a delay in declaring a winner, said Boegman.
“In the last election there were quite a number of ridings where the number of absentee ballots to be counted was greater than the margin between the top two candidates. So, it is possible that there will be a delay before the final results are known.”
Absentee counting typically begins 13 days after election day with a three-day period for counting, however, Boegman explained there could be an extension in that 13-day buffer.
“Until we know how many [absentee] ballots will be present we’re not going to be able to determine whether an extension to that 13-day period is necessary in order to prepare the ballot for counting,” Boegman said.
“Our commitment is to make sure that the count is conducted as quickly as possible, while maintaining the necessary integrity checks.”
