Some B.C. candidates and voters say the simultaneous October municipal vote and provincial election campaign is creating confusion and straining election resources.
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British Columbians will vote in two separate elections in October—municipal elections on Oct. 17 and a provincial election on Oct. 24 that will choose 93 members of the legislature and determine the next premier—yet some voters and campaign organizers say the overlap is making it harder to participate and plan.
Prince George city council candidate Cori Ramsay said she heard from a voter who told her they “can’t wait to cast a ballot for her on Oct. 24,” even though Ramsay’s municipal election is a week earlier on Oct. 17. Ramsay said candidates are being told to step aside because voters believe they are backing their choice for an MLA, and she described the situation as “just so much confusion in the community right now,” noting that the municipal election day overlaps with provincial advance voting.
Ramsay also said the dual election dates make it harder for voters to assess a crowded field of candidates, and she pointed to one frustrated voter who said they would base their choice on a “vibe check.”
Jenna Stoner, the Union of BC Municipalities’ current president and a mayoral candidate in Squamish, said she has seen voters confused about where and when to vote. Tanya Webking, running with the BC Green Party for Vancouver-Strathcona in the Oct. 24 provincial election, said she has had voters mistake her for a different Green Party candidate and that some people forgot about the double election dates.
Vancouver voter Paul Thompson said it has been difficult to understand the multiple municipal candidates, where there are more than 100 people on the ballot. He also said he struggled to understand how the city’s bodies, including the park board, differ, and he described the provincial election call as an unnecessary way to spend taxpayers’ money.
When asked about the overlapping elections at a campaign event on Wednesday, NDP leader David Eby said he had confidence in electors’ ability to vote in two elections. “The local candidate elections, as far as I can tell, are running just fine,” he said, adding that a future report from Elections BC may address the issue.
Elections BC said it has not weighed the outcomes or impacts of the dual elections because the provincial election campaign is not finished. In an email on Thursday, Elections BC said it had received a “large number” of applications for election officials and other staff, more than the last provincial election, and noted that in rural and remote communities it is still hiring election officials and office staff up to final voting day.
Stoner, Ramsay and Webking said the combined campaigns are also affecting volunteers and staffing. Stoner said she has seen volunteer burnout and warned of the possibility that volunteers or polling staff could be pulled to provincial campaigns, reducing local efforts. She said, “There’s limited capacity in the system and we’ve doubled the requirement of that system without necessarily doubling the resources.”
Ramsay said the municipal campaign lost some workers who moved to provincial work, which provides a few extra days of employment at higher pay.
Michael MacKenzie, a professor of political studies and the Jarislowsky chair in trust and political leadership at Vancouver Island University, said the overlap is “bad for democracy” because municipal decisions can significantly affect residents. He said both municipal and provincial campaigns often rely on the same volunteer base and that resources are stretched thin, adding that students have volunteered in multiple elections or switched campaigns entirely.
MacKenzie said he does not think voter fatigue will be an issue because British Columbians are used to elections every four years, but he said the challenge is getting the work done to cast an informed vote. He also said municipal elections tend to have low voter turnout and that the more visible provincial election could siphon attention.
Ramsay said she is hoping for activity at the polls in Prince George, where she is pursuing a third term on city council, but said turnout in local elections there has been among the lowest in the province in recent years. She said she expects voters may favour one election over the other at the end of the day.
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