Election campaign a “sleeper”

Oct 23, 2020 | 3:45 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – A “sleeper.”

That’s how UNBC Political Scientist Jason Morris describes the 42nd provincial election campaign since the Writ was dropped on September 21st.

And he suspects, for a variety of reasons, British Columbians likely won’t know who will represent them in Victoria tomorrow night either.

“Last election in 2017, over 90% of the ballots were counted and figured out on election night,” says Morris. “Now that we’ve got advance polling and all these mail-in ballots we might be waiting later. Past bedtime to see what happens.”

BC Elections will not begin counting the mail-in ballots for 13 days after the polls close in order to weed out those who have voted twice. But the sheer volume of mail-in ballots may delay that count even longer.

In the Prince George-Mackenzie riding, 4,652 mail-in ballots were requested and for Prince George-Valemount, 4,563. He says BC’s population has also increased by five percent, adding to Elections Bc’s workload.