City of Powell River councillors have been provided an accounting of the recent byelection, which had good turnout for a non-referendum byelection, according to chief election officer Chris Jackson.
At the city council meeting on Thursday, May 2, Jackson said councillor George Doubt was elected on April 6, 2019, and has been sworn in as a council member.
Jackson said the turnout, although low, at 19.2 per cent, is actually relatively good for a byelection. He said in Nanaimo, for example, the last byelection for local government had about a 10 per cent turnout, so 19.2 per cent is actually quite high.
There were three candidates in the byelection. Doubt had a total of 1,199 of the 2,048 ballots cast, for 58.5 per cent of the votes. Allan Drummond had 577 votes, for 28.2 per cent of the votes and Alan Rebane had 271 votes, for 13.2 per cent.
In terms of ballot accounting, Jackson said all ballots were accounted for “100 per cent.”
“There are zero discrepancies,” he said.
Mayor Dave Formosa thanked Jackson for all of the work he had done through last year’s civic election and this year’s byelection.
Chief administrative officer Russell Brewer also offered his thanks, saying it was a lot of extra work for the election team.
Council voted to receive the report for information.
