Elections BC has now received more than 537,000 ballots in the Metro Vancouver transit tax plebiscite, or about 34 per cent of the 1.56 million registered voters.
Of the ballots received, about 455,000 or 29.2 per cent have gone through Elections BC’s initial screening process to verify the ballot appears valid.
The largest numbers of screened ballots continue to come from Vancouver and Surrey, which together account for more than 208,000, followed by more than 41,000 from Burnaby and more than 32,000 from Richmond.
Variations in the return rate among different municipalities are now evening out.
The highest rates of ballots returned and screened are now Belcarra (38.1 per cent), Delta (33.7 per cent) and North Vancouver City (33.1 per cent), while the lowest rates are in Langley City (21.2 per cent), UBC and electoral area A (23.5 per cent) and West Vancouver (23.7 per cent).
Data released by Elections BC also shows more than 7,500 new voters have registered since April 1 and 2,760 of them are in Vancouver.
The deadline for ballots to be received is 8 p.m. May 29, but ballots mailed in late May might not arrive in time and would have to be dropped off at an Elections BC plebiscite office.
Anyone who hasn’t received a ballot, or lost or misplaced theirs, have until midnight May 15 to ask Elections BC for one by calling 1-800-661-8683 or see more info at elections.bc.ca/plebiscite.
No TransLink Tax spokesman Jordan Bateman said No campaigners will be ramping up social media and person-to-person efforts to reach the two-thirds of voters whose ballots have not yet arrived.
See interactive charts below for details by municipality.
