By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Mid-island leads pack as electoral reform ballots trickle in

Nov 13, 2018 | 2:03 PM

NANAIMO — While only a small fraction of eligible voters in British Columbia have bothered to mail in their electoral reform referendum ballots, mid-islanders appear among the most eager.

Just 5.3 per cent of eligible voters province-wide have mailed in their choice on B.C.’s electoral system, according to interim data released by Elections BC Tuesday. A little more than 175,000 of nearly 3.3 million eligible ballots have been sent back.

In the Nanaimo riding, 10.3 per cent of voters have cast a ballot so far (13th highest in B.C.), 10.5 per cent in Nanaimo-Cowichan (11th highest) and 11.6 per cent in Parksville-Qualicum, sixth most in B.C.

The highest return rate out of the province’s 87 ridings has so far been Boundary-Similkameen at 14.1 per cent, while the lowest is Delta North at just 0.3 per cent, or 106 votes.

There are the two questions being asked on the provincial electoral reform referendum:

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• Should we keep the current First-Past-The-Post voting system or move to a system of proportional representation?
• The second question asks voters to rank three proportional systems: Dual Member Proportional (DMP), Mixed Member Proportional (MMP), or Rural-Urban Proportional (RUP)

A majority of the votes cast will dictate what kind of electoral system B.C. will have moving forward.

Ballots must be received by Elections BC on Nov. 30 by 4:30 p.m. The voting period began on Oct. 22.

Previous electoral reform referendums were rejected by B.C. voters in 2005 and 2009.

Elections BC has complete information on the electoral reform referendum here.

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