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Plebiscite Turnout Now Higher Than Municipal Elections

Author: Jordan Bateman 2015/05/06

VANCOUVER, B.C.: The No TransLink Tax campaign is pleased to see another turnout milestone reached in the TransLink tax plebiscite – turnout is now higher across the region for this vote than in last November’s municipal elections. 

Nearly 551,000 ballots have been sorted by Elections BC, more than the 532,205 cast in the municipal election. Elections BC tweeted that another 50,000 have yet to be processed.

“It’s clear our grassroots No TransLink Tax campaign is engaging people, and it’s exciting to see more votes have already been cast in this plebiscite than were received by mayors and councils last fall,” said Jordan Bateman, No TransLink Tax spokesperson. “We’re hopeful that turnout will continue to grow over the final 23 days of voting, and push the count to well more than 40 per cent.”

Bateman noted that only nine days remain for individuals who have not received their ballots, or have misplaced them, to get a new one from Elections BC. Individuals can ask for a voting package at 1-800-661-8683 FREE or www.elections.bc.ca/ovr before May 15. Voting can proceed until May 29, but new ballots won’t be issued after the 15th.

Further, all ballots must be received by Elections BC by May 29 – it’s not enough to have them postmarked by that date. For that reason, the No TransLink Tax campaign is recommending that all NO votes be in the mail soon to give them ample time to get to Elections BC.

From mid-May on, NO voters should go to one of Elections BC’s nine plebiscite offices to ensure their vote is counted.

“There’s no more time to waste,” said Bateman. “All NO voters need to get their ballots in to ensure this TransLink tax is soundly defeated.”

The following chart compares 2014 municipal election voters to 2015 TransLink tax plebiscite turnout:

Municipality

2015 Pleb Voters

2014 Muni Voters

Difference

Bowen Island

 1,016

1,920

-904

Burnaby

 50,327

41,494

8,833

Coquitlam

 29,739

21,978

7,761

Langley City

 5,868

4,187

1,681

Maple Ridge

 21,139

16,815

4,324

New Westminster

 16,743

14,564

2,179

North Van City

 13,067

10,567

2,500

Pitt Meadows

 4,770

3,996

774

Port Coquitlam

 13,741

9,922

3,819

Port Moody

 7,932

7,813

119

Richmond

 41,195

40,245

950

Surrey

 88,374

100,982

-12,608

Vancouver

 158,480

181,707

-23,227

White Rock

 5,656

5,085

571

Delta

 25,474

22,066

3,408

North Van District

 22,964

14,709

8,255

West Vancouver

 10,980

8,562

2,418

Electoral Area A

 1,985

938

1,047

Langley Township

 29,975

22,654

7,321

Tsawwassen FN*

 189

193

-4

Anmore

 615

787

-172

Belcarra

 244

327

-83

Lions Bay

 434

694

-260

TOTAL

 550,907

532,205

18,702

       

*Tsawwassen First Nation votes from 2013 chief election

 

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