The 2020 B.C. election is like no provincial election before it, and local election officials are moving to pull it off without a hitch.
Wayne Robier is the District Electoral Officer in Cariboo North. He said they’ve recruited around 80 per cent of the poll workers needed for election day.
“COVID-19 has been a factor in our recruiting,” he said. “We’ve had a number of people who have been somewhat reluctant or unwilling to put themselves in a polling place for 14 hours.”
Some places, such as seniors centres, who previously allowed mobile polling are making the move to disallow those mobile polls because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead, those voters are asked to either request a mail-in ballot, vote early or make the trip to a polling location on election day.
Eligible B.C. voters can request a voting package online at elections.bc.ca/ovr or over the phone by calling 1-800-661-8683.
Voters can request a ballot right up until election day, but it must be filled out and returned to a polling station or collection centre or sent to Elections BC no later than 8 p.m. on election day, Saturday, Oct. 24.
Despite COVID-19, Robier said he was confident there will be enough workers throughout the riding for the election.
“I’m as prepared as I can be,” he said.
In-person voting will look different because of the virus. Most of the changes are to keep poll workers safe.
Gone is the usual two-person team at each ballot box. Instead, a single representative will greet and dispense ballots. They’ll be protected by a Plexiglas shield and no need to physically touch identification.
“It’s dramatic,” Robier said on the changes for poll workers. “One of the reasons [there have been two workers] in the past is to preserve the integrity of the voting process. So there will be a heightened requirement for a supervisor to be watching the process to ensure it’s done properly.”
Voters will be required to physically distance at polling locations, with hand sanitizer at the ready.
Scrutineers, people working for a specific campaign who observe polling places, will be limited in what they are allowed to do as well. Normally, they are allowed to watch counting at tables closely.
“This time, they will be asked to observe more generally,” Robier said. “We’ve talked to the campaigns about scrutineer requirements.”
Election night usually ends with a majority of ballots counted and a winner declared, but this year, workers and voters will most likely be heading home wondering what the final result will be.
Only 28 people in the Cariboo North riding voted by mail in 2017, and 3,000 did so province wide. While it’s unclear how many voters in this riding have requested a ballot, province-wide, Elections BC has sent out more than 500,000 ballots.
READ MORE: B.C. VOTES 2020: Looking back at 2017 Cariboo North numbers
“[Mail-in ballots] are going to make a huge difference in the counting,” Robier said. “Every ballot that is mailed in from Cariboo North is going to be counted in this office.”
That counting takes place a week after election day, so with the high number of ballots requested as mail-ins, the result province-wide and in Cariboo North could be up in the air.
“A couple of elections ago, I think there were 25 votes difference between the two candidates in Williams Lake — that went through the final count and a judicial recount,” Robier said. “That sort of thing could happen this time around.”
None of the four candidates running in Cariboo North are planning public election night events.
READ MORE: BC VOTES 2020: Provincial election will have familiar duo battling in Cariboo North
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