Roughly 12 per cent of voters in the ridings of Prince George-Mackenzie and Prince George-Valemount have opted to vote by mail-in ballot in the B.C. provincial election, according to data released by Elections BC.
As of midnight on Monday, 4,196 mail-in ballot packages had been sent to voters in the Prince George-Mackenzie riding and 4,155 to voters in Prince George-Valemount.
The shift is part of an unprecedented move toward mail-in ballots, Elections BC said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
"As of October 13, 680,000 voters have requested vote-by-mail packages," the Elections BC statement said. "In the 2017 provincial election, 6,517 voters voted by mail."
Mail-in ballots were less popular in the Prince George ridings than the provincial average – which saw almost 20 per cent of the province's nearly 3.49 million voters opt to cast their vote by mail.
As of Tuesday, Elections BC had received approximately 138,500 completed vote-by-mail packages.
"Some voters who have been issued a vote-by-mail package may not have received it yet," Elections BC's statement said. "Elections BC is working as fast as possible to process package requests, produce vote-by-mail packages and send them to Canada Post for delivery. It is possible that voters, especially those who request a voting package this week, will receive their vote-by-mail package after the recommended deadline to return it by mail on October 17."
Elections BC must receive completed mail-in ballots by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Oct. 24, to be counted.
If you receive your mail-in ballot too late to fill it out and mail it back by Oct. 17, Elections BC recommends you drop it off at a designated drop-off location, which include district electoral offices, voting places during voting hours and some Service BC locations.
