If British Columbians head to the polls for a federal, provincial or municipal election during the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be capacity limits in place at voting sites.
According to Elections BC, when safe voting plans were developed earlier this year, Dr. Bonnie Henry was consulted about whether the 50 person limit for gatherings and events would be in effect at voting places.
Elections BC said Henry has confirmed voting places are not considered events because people are only present within the voting place for a short period of time, and there is an ongoing flow of people.
Since those sites do not fall under the provincial order on events and gatherings, Elections BC does not have to collect and retain a list of attendees for 30 days and or provide the names of the attendees to the owner of the sites.
However, Elections BC said there will be capacity limits in voting places to ensure physical distancing, in addition to other COVID-19 measures.
The capacity limits will be determined based on the square footage of the space. They will take into account the number of voting stations, election officials, and scrutineers that will be present during voting.
If the capacity limit is reached, voters will have to line up outside the voting place with physical distancing.
“Many of our voting places are large spaces. Having capacity limits based on square footage will allow us to maintain physical distancing, while also ensuring that voters move through the voting place quickly,” Elections BC said.
Horgan said during Thursday’s press conference on the province’s economic recovery plan that he has not made a decision at this point whether to call a snap fall election.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps has confirmed there will be a byelection sometime this fall but a date has not yet been set.
On March 18, to help limit the spread of COVID-19, Selina Robinson, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, cancelled Victoria’s April 4 byelection.
The vote for one councillor in Victoria had been scheduled for April after the position became vacant when Laurel Collins, now MP for Victoria, resigned from Victoria City Council in November 2019.
#Breaking – We have a POTENTIAL date for the Victoria By-Election. Council asks staff to see if a December 12th vote would work. Not a done deal yet. Staff report back October 1st. This is all subject to advice from Provincial Health Officer. #YYJ @CHEK_News
— Joe Perkins (@JoePerkinsCHEK) September 17, 2020
CHEK News
