Two weeks in and only four per cent of registered voters cast plebiscite ballots

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – It seems voters are in no real rush to get their transportation plebiscite ballots in.  Two weeks after the voting packages were mailed out, only about four per cent have been returned, that’s according to Elections BC.

Over 1.5-million ballots have gone out in Metro Vancouver and over 63,000 have been returned.

Don Main with Elections BC says these ballots are all coming from Surrey and Vancouver and that’s because people living in those two cities got their ballots first.

“When Elections BC sent out voting packages, we distributed the most cost-effective way to distribute the packages was about 150,000 a day and they were distributed to the municipalities that had the most amount of registered voters.”

“These are numbers that have gone through the initial screening process at Elections BC.  So, this doesn’t include numbers that are in the mail or that people have sent back yet, but that have gone throughout initial processing,” adds Main.

The “yes” side in the campaign isn’t worried about the low number.

Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore says the fact that this number only represents Surrey and Vancouver is good.

“I’d be worried as we see the other cities returned and it stayed at four per cent but it’s still early,” he says. “One of the things that’s new about this whole process for us is we’ve talked to other areas that have done this. We’ve looked when the HST referendum was on and we couldn’t find any consistencies.”

If you haven’t received a ballot by now, you need to contact Elections BC and you have until midnight on May 15th to register for a package.

Voters have until May 29th to have them in.