Saturday October 17, 2020 | LANGFORD & COLWOOD, BC [Updated 12 noon October 18, 2020]
by Mary P Brooke, editor | Island Social Trends
Voters are showing up at a steady pace at voting places around the south Vancouver Island region. Today in the west shore there was a spattering of rain that didn’t stop anyone from getting out to cast their vote in the BC provincial election.
The attendance isn’t overloaded, which is the whole point during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. At most, there were two or three voters at two voting places visited today by Island Social Trends in Langford and Colwood today.
Elections BC has set up Advance Voting to run October 15 through 21, seven consecutive days open 8 am to 8 pm.
Voting by mail option:
Voting can also be done by mail-in ballot (the deadline was today to mail those, for assurance it will reach Elections BC by 8 pm on October 24 — but you can also drop them off at any District Electoral Office before the deadline).
General Election Day is Saturday October 24, with voting places open from 8 am to 8 pm.
As of October 13, 680,000 voters had requested vote-by-mail packages. As of October 13, an estimated 138,500 vote-by-mail packages had already been returned to Elections BC, representing approximately 21% of packages issued to date.
Advance voter turnout:
On the first two days of advance voting in BC (October 15 and 16), there were 212,233 ballots cast, which is about six per cent of total registered voters (as of September 26).
In the west shore, Cowichan and in Saanich North and the Islands the advance voter turnout (shown in brackets below) was higher than the provincial average:
- WEST SHORE:
- Langford-Juan de Fuca: 3,552 votes (about 7.5%); this is BC NDP leader incumbent John Horgan’s riding (Premier)
- Esquimalt-Metchosin: 3,749 votes (about 9.0%); the BC NDP incumbent is Mitzi Dean (Parliamentary Secretary Gender Equity) and the BC Green candidate is Andy MacKinnon.
- COWICHAN/DUNCAN:
- Cowichan Valley: 3,741 votes (7.7%); this is BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau’s riding
- VICTORIA:
- Victoria-Beacon Hill: 1,085 votes (2.2.%); vacated by long-time NDP MLA Carole James (Finance Minister)
- Victoria-Swan Lake: 2,318 votes (5.7%); the BC NDP incumbent is Rob Fleming (Education)
- OAK BAY and SAANICH:
- Oak Bay-Gordon Head: 2,544 votes (6.0%); vacated by former MLA Andrew Weaver, with the BC NDP running former MP Murray Rankin.
- Saanich South: 2,536 votes (6.0%); BC NDP incumbent is Lana Popham (Agriculture); the BC Greens are running a young new candidate Kate O’Connor who is just 18 years old.
- Saanich North and the Islands: 3,929 votes (7.8%); BC Green incumbent is Adam Olsen.
Candidates voting early:
A number of candidates are voting ahead of October 24, to make sure that important action gets done. Today in Esquimalt-Metchosin BC NDP candidate Mitzi Dean arrived at the voting place at West Shore Parks & Recreation with her husband and daughter.
Many times, candidates will arrange to have photos taken of them dropping their ballot into a ballot box.
Most candidates on election day are helping to ‘get out the vote’ and otherwise preparing for attendance at their election results events that evening.
Counting the ballots:
Given the significant number of mail-in ballots for this provincial election, it could take up to three weeks before the final results of the 42nd General Election are known — possibly as far along as Friday November 13.
A lot of that is about mechanical process… mail-in ballots need to be physically relocated to the District Electoral Office (DEO) of the riding indicated on the ballot. That means shipping ballots all around the province to probably all of the 87 ridings. Mail-in ballots are mailed to the central Elections BC office but are also collected at DEO’s all around the province (see list of all DEO’s in BC). The great resorting happens after October 24, within a 13-day window.
Until the profile of the next government is known (i.e. how many seats for each party) BC NDP Leader continues as Premier. All government services continue uninterrupted during a provincial election.
To find locations for advance voting (PDF) and voting on General Election Day, visit the Elections BC website.
