Hundreds of B.C. 'where to vote' cards sent out with wrong address, Elections BC says

Elections BC is reissuing new 'where to vote' cards to some residents after an administrative error mistakenly recommended voting places that were farther from homes than necessary.

Although the front of the informational brochures clearly indicate people can visit any voting station to cast their ballot on the provincial election day, a CTV News viewer flagged a concern on Vancouver Island that prompted an investigation.

The Ladysmith-Oceanside riding resident had a ‘where to vote’ card indicating the closest voting place to was 35 kilometres away at Nanoose Place. Elections BC is now clarifying with 520 voters in that area that the cards should have listed North Oyster Community Centre instead.

“I think it was an administrative error on our part,” says Elections BC’s senior director of communications, Andrew Watson.

“We look at over 5,000 voting areas provincewide and make voting place assignments based on the voting place that’s closest to that voting area. In this case, the voters should’ve been assigned to the North Oyster Community Centre – and our quality assurance process didn’t catch that," Watson adds.

"So we do apologize for the error but we’re taking action to inform voters about this change and make sure that their assigned voting place for election day is convenient for them.”

As part of its response, Elections BC says it reviewed all electoral districts.

“We did determine that five voting areas provincewide out of about 5,700 total should be reassigned and we’re taking similar steps in those electoral districts,” says Watson.

Out of the 3.5 million ‘where to vote’ cards that have been mailed, roughly 2,000 registered voters will receive revised pamphlets.

Elections BC is reminding all eligible voters they can vote at their assigned voting place listed on the back of their informational card, by mail or at any voting place on Oct. 19.