qathet Regional District’s (qRD) committee of the whole is recommending that the regional board amend the regional district’s electoral procedure bylaw.
At the May 12 committee of the whole meeting, directors discussed the amendment bylaw, which makes for less restrictive voting provisions for mail-in ballots.
Electoral Area E director Andrew Fall said provincial legislation had changed and the regional district should clean up its bylaw.
“This is choosing to make it aligned with provincial legislation,” said Fall. “I know from the Union of British Columbia Municipalities and the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities, there are always concerns about expanding voting in rural areas. I’m in favour of democracy.
“The question I have is: when elections are done, will we be able to see in the results the number of people who take advantage of this expanded opportunity? Will the mailing versus the in-person votes be differentiated?”
Corporate office Michelle Jones said she would look into that and provide the information to directors.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said one of his constituents came to him with an issue during the Powell River Board of Education byelection held in 2021. Gisborne said the constituent had ordered a mail-in ballot and the ballot they received was incomplete.
“On election day they went down to vote in person and they were turned away because they were on the mail-in ballot list,” added Gisborne. “My question is, if someone tries to get a mail-in ballot, but something goes wrong and they show up on election day, can they still vote in person, or, because they have been signed up for mail-in ballot, are they not allowed to vote in person?”
Jones said she would have to look into the legalities with that.
The committee voted to send the amendment bylaw to the regional board’s next meeting for first reading through adoption.
According to a staff report, updates to the mail-in ballot voting provisions in the Local Government Act occurred in June 2021.
The report stated a local government may, by bylaw, permit voting to be done by mail ballot.
qRD’s existing bylaw does allow for mail ballot voting, but electors were required to fall into certain categories in order to qualify. The June 2021 provincial revision now enables any eligible voter who wishes to request an application for a mail-in ballot the ability to do so if provided by bylaw by the local government.
