VANCOUVER, B.C.: The No TransLink Tax campaign is encouraged by the very early return numbers posted by Elections B.C. today, which show nearly 125,000 people voted in the first few days of the TransLink tax plebiscite process.

“The TransLink Mayors would love a low turnout in this vote, so their $7 million, taxpayer-funded campaign can carry the day,” said Jordan Bateman, No TransLink Tax spokesperson. “The Mayors are outspending the NO side 200 to 1, paying dozens of high-priced consultants, doing relentless robocalling, intrusive phone banking, and sending glossy mailouts to identify and encourage only YES supporters to vote. We can’t compete with those millions, so we are trusting voters to mark their ballots NO and return them.”

Elections BC mailed out ballots over two weeks from March 16 through March 27, putting 150,000 into the mail each day, starting with the largest city, Vancouver. This is why the early return numbers are more heavily skewed to Vancouver.

To be included in this April 8 count with the Easter long weekend in play, voters would have had to put their marked ballots in the mail by March 26 – which means half a million or more voters hadn’t even received their voting packages in time to be counted for today’s Elections BC post.

“Three or four weeks from today, we should have a much clearer picture of turnout,” said Bateman. “These early returns grossly under-report voters outside Vancouver, simply because other communities received their ballots later.”

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