Elections BC says it is keeping close watch on the potential impact of rotating postal strikes on British Columbia’s electoral reform referendum but so far there are no plans to extend the Nov. 30 mail-in deadline.
Spokeswoman Rebecca Penz says the non-partisan election agency has yet to determine that the ongoing labour situation at Canada Post will cause voters to miss the deadline.
READ MORE: Canada Post ‘cooling off’ period won’t resolve postal dispute, says union
She says Elections BC is monitoring ballot returns and keeping tabs on developments at Canada Post.
Penz says in 2011, Elections BC extended the mail-in deadline by two weeks for the provincewide referendum on the harmonized sales tax, but that was after a national lockout at Canada Post.
Officials at B.C.’s Vote No side called for an extension last week, citing the ongoing dispute at Canada Post and ballot returns that were below 20 per cent.
Vote No spokesman Bill Tieleman says an extension of one or two weeks would ensure all ballots are counted and not caught in any potential backlogs.
The Canadian Press
