Voting by mail seems to be the most popular way to cast a ballot during the 2020 Provincial Election.
The vote is set for 24th of this month and Elections BC has received 470-thousand requests for mail-in ballots while in 2017, they only received 65-hundred.
Spokesperson, Andrew Watson is anticipating 800-thousand votes by mail this year due to the pandemic.
“We conducted surveys amongst voters in May and August and about 35% of them would prefer to vote by mail if an election were to be held during the pandemic and that will work out to about 800-thousand voters.”
However, you still have time to get in on the action with the deadline set for October 17th.
“The figures to date have really, really been unprecedented and voters still can request their mail-in package and they can do by phone or mail up until that date (October 17th).”
For those filing out a mail-in ballot that’s blank, you will need to write the name of your local candidate or a party that’s running in your district.
The deadline for candidates to declare if they are running is tomorrow (October 2nd).
As for what this means for mail carriers in Prince George, Local CUPW President Clark Rasmussen doesn’t anticipate any problems.
“We are confident about this and we see different parts of the year where we get a bump in mail like Christmas time and tax season, this is nothing different.”
“In previous years with elections, once the mail has been put into the post office it actually separates into a separate bin so it does get special treatment as it is first-class mail.”