The executive director of the BC Liberals says Saturday's leadership vote will go ahead as scheduled.

Chad Pederson told CTV News Friday afternoon that the party will not delay the leadership convention, even though more than 1,000 party members do not have necessary PIN numbers.

Earlier in the day, candidate Kevin Falcon had suggested that the BC Liberal leadership vote might need to be extended by a couple of days to make sure all party members have a chance to vote.

Several candidates have sounded the alarm about rural members of the Liberal party still waiting for the documents needed to participate in Saturday's online or phone-in vote. As many as 30 per cent of members in the Peace region and North Vancouver Island were still without PINs Friday afternoon.

Falcon says that drastic measures might be needed.

"Thousands of people potentially might be disenfranchised from voting and we can't allow that to happen. It wouldn't be fair," he told CTV News.

"The party has to look at whatever is necessary, maybe extending the vote another couple of days to ensure people get their pins and have the opportunity to vote."

The Liberal party has set up a toll-free line at 1-888-281-8683 to assist anyone who hasn't received the ID number identifying them as approved, card-carrying party members. More than 1,200 PINs have been given out in the last 24 hours.

But Falcon says that some members have had trouble getting through on the busy phone line.

"They have not been able to get through and when they have gotten through the mail boxes have been full," he said Friday morning on CKNW radio.

"We are potentially disenfranchising a lot of people."

Christy Clark's campaign issued a statement Friday, urging the party to increase the inbound-call capacity of the toll-free line to accommodate members, and to make proactive phone calls to members in rural areas to provide PINs.

Past problems with online voting

Intelivote Systems, the company that set up the Liberals' Saturday vote, says holding elections online is easier and less expensive than traditional methods.

But some argue the potential costs outweigh the convenience. "With an electronic system, you send your vote out into the ether and as far as you're concerned it disappears," said Anthony Hodgson of Fair Voting BC.

"What you're doing is replacing transparency with trust in the people who are running the election."

Intelivote has also faced setbacks like the Liberals' PIN problem before: Last year, the company was responsible for more than 30 civic elections in Ontario – but problems casting votes by phone and online forced several communities to extend the vote, in one case by 24 hours.

Company president Dean Smith says such problems are history, and that "from a technology point of view, it can't happen again."

He says his company is currently shortlisted to handle a 100-million person vote in India, and there's talk they may take on the HST referendum later this year.

"Allowing people to vote electronically has an additional level of risk," Smith admitted. "Our technology hopes to mitigate some of that risk."

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Sarah Galashan and files from the Canadian Press