Advance voting begins in B.C. today

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Seven days of advance voting ahead of the Oct. 24 provincial election kick off on Thursday.

British Columbians will have one extra day this election to cast their ballots ahead of time than they did in 2017.

Adia Kapoor with Elections BC says they will have enough staff on-hand to make sure things run smoothly.

“In general, we don’t tend to have difficulty staffing for advance voting opportunities, largely because there are fewer voting places than on general voting day, fewer voting stations within the voting place, and therefore we need fewer officials,” she tells NEWS 1130.

Related stories: 

• B.C. election 2020: Promises from your major party leaders

• B.C. party leaders face off in first debate without fireworks

• Online voting backed by most British Columbians: poll

As for Election Day itself, there are still a few vacant positions in some parts of the province, but Kapoor believes they will be filled in time.

There will be some changes in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have to get bigger facilities in order to promote physical distancing, we’ll have limited number of voters allowed into a voting place at any one time, so we’ll have potentially more people lined up outside the voting place,” she explains.

“In order to ensure physical distancing, we just have one person at each station. But that’s sort of somewhat balanced with the need to hire more information officers so we have more staff to help control the flow of voters in and out of the voting place.”

Meanwhile, as many British Columbians prepare to cast their vote in person this week, thousands of others have already gotten their ballots in — remotely.

As of Wednesday, Elections BC had received close to 139,000 vote-by-mail packages. To date, Elections BC has received about 699,000 requests from British Columbians who wish to mail in their ballot.

We've now received requests for about 699,000 vote-by-mail packages. Find a breakdown of packages issued by electoral district here: https://t.co/jyd7I7bRQQ

— Elections BC (@ElectionsBC) October 14, 2020

In-person advanced polling will be available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the days the polling stations are open.

For all your election-related news in the lead up to Oct. 24, head to our B.C. Votes 2020 page.