When Elections B.C. extended the voting period for the referendum on the harmonized sales tax, the agency generated an unintended irony for the B.C. Liberals regarding the timing of the results.
Ballots are now returnable no later than Aug. 5. The count itself is expected to take three or four weeks, depending on turnout. Results are to be announced in the last few days of August or the first few days of September.
Yes, September. September 2011 is when British Columbians originally were scheduled to cast a ballot on harmonization, back before the B.C. Liberals set about trying to "improve" the process.
This time last year, the petition in support of the initiative to extinguish the tax had been delivered to Elections B.C. Staffers were vetting more than half a million signatures, en route to certifying the petition as an overwhelming success.
Next steps called for the initiative to be tabled for consideration in the legislature or, failing that, submitted to a provincewide initiative vote, somewhat like a referendum. The timing of the latter, Sept. 24, 2011, was determined by a written-into-legislation provision adopted under the previous New Democratic Party government.
As soon as it became apparent that the Liberals were inclined to go the initiative vote route, there were calls for them to advance the date and end the uncertainty. But with opinion polls showing the public 10-to-one against the HST, the Liberals were in no rush.
Then came former premier Gordon Campbell's announcement that he would leave office. In the resulting leadership race, the candidates, inescapably, revisited the debate over timing of the vote on the HST.
Christy Clark initially called for the tax to be submitted to a free vote in the house. But by the time she won the leadership, she'd come around to letting the public have its say through a provincewide ballot, only three months earlier than the scheduled initiative vote.
The vote was supposed to be "conducted in the same manner as a general election," meaning the electorate would be going to polling stations across the province on June 24 and voting in person.
After taking the oath of office as premier in mid-March, Clark revised her plans again. The HST referendum would now be conducted as a mail ballot. Though pitched as a money saver, the process was a lot more time-consuming because of the two-way reliance on the mails.
Mail ballots take weeks longer to count as well. Instead of 30,000 election workers totting up ballots in 1,500 polling places around the province, as they would in a general election, you've got three dozen or so Elections B.C. staffers working in two shifts in the provincial capital.
The initial timetable had ballot packages being mailed out in mid-June, returnable by July 22 and the count completed by mid-August.
Then came the postal shutdown and calls for a two-week extension, eventually granted by Elections B.C.
So after all the talk from the B.C. Liberals about moving up the date, we'll end up knowing the result at about the same time as if they'd left the initiative vote where it was originally slated to be.
