British Columbians who have already made up their minds in the provincial election will be able to cast their ballots in-person, starting tomorrow.

Advance voting runs from Oct. 15 to Oct. 21, with Election Day on Oct. 24.

Elections BC had received roughly 670,000 vote-by-mail package requests as of Oct. 14. There are 3.48 million registered voters in B.C.

READ MORE: Here’s how voting amid a pandemic will happen in B.C.

Here’s what you need to know before you vote.

Advance polling locations:

Advance voting places will be available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time on the days they are open.

The Pleasant Valley Plaza at 2350 Butler Ave, is the Advance polling location in Houston.

Candidates running in the Nechako Lakes riding:

This time’s provincial election will see five candidates running for the election from the Nechako Lakes riding.

• BC Liberal Party – John Rustad. The incumbent B.C. Liberal MLA will be running for the fifth time in the upcoming provincial elections.

• BC NDP – Ann Marie Sam. The NDP candidate will be running for the second time in the provincial elections.

• BC Libertarian Party – Jon Rempel. This is Rempel’s second run in the provincial elections; the first was in 2017.

• Independent – Margo Maley. Maley, who has always had a political ambition, will be running for the first time in the elections.

• Christian Heritage Party of B.C. – Dan Stuart. Stuart will be running for the first time in the provincial elections.

If you are unsure of who to vote, then head over to the Houston & District Chamber of Commerce’s virtual candidate forum to watch the All Candidates discussion. The All Candidates forum, which was held on Oct. 7, was virtually attended by all the candidates except BC Libertarian Party candidate Jon Rempel. The discussion also had people asking questions live on Facebook or through the forum moderators.

Voter registration:

While eligible voters don’t have to register ahead of time to take part in the election, Elections BC recommends British Columbians sign up ahead of time in order to avoid lengthy lineups.

Voters can register or update their information online at elections.bc.ca/ovr or by calling 1-800-661-8683. Registration closed on Sept. 26.

To be eligible, British Columbians must be able to show one of the following pieces of identification:

• A B.C. driver’s licence
• A B.C. Identification Card
• A B.C. Services Card, with photo
• A Certificate of Indian Status
• Another card issued by the B.C. government, or Canada, that shows your name, photo and address

Health rules for voting during COVID-19:

All voting places and district electoral offices will have protective measures in place, including:

• Physical distancing
• Capacity limits
• Election officials wearing personal protective equipment (such as masks and face-visors)
• Protective barriers
• Hand sanitizing stations
• Frequent cleaning of voting stations and frequently touched surfaces
• Election workers trained on safe workplace guidelines and pandemic protocols

– with files from Ashley Wadhwani

Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar

priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net

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