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: