Nearly Three Million Registered to Vote at Election Call
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 15, 2009
VICTORIA – Nearly three million British Columbians or 91% of eligible voters are registered to vote in the May election and referendum on electoral reform, Elections BC announced today.
British Columbians have responded in record numbers to Elections BC’s ‘Get on the list!’ voter enumeration campaign. For the more than 280,000 eligible voters who are not yet registered, or not registered at the correct address, there’s still time to get on the list before it closes, says B.C.’s Chief Electoral Officer.
“Voters only have a few more days to make sure they are registered before the list closes on April 21,” said Chief Electoral Officer Harry Neufeld. “Every eligible British Columbian should have the opportunity to vote, but in order to vote you must be registered.”
Online voter registration at www.elections.bc.ca remains available until midnight on April 21, and registration by phone (1-800-661-8683) is available until 8 p.m. (Pacific time) that evening.
As of Writ Day, the official start of the election, the preliminary list for the May 12 election contains the names and addresses of 2,943,399 voters. This is almost 200,000 more registered voters than at this point in the last provincial election held in May 2005. The list of nearly three million voters represents 91.23% of the estimated 3,226,440 eligible voters in the province. Over the last four years, B.C.’s eligible voter population has increased by approximately 177,000, according to BC Stats.
After general registration closes on April 21, a revised voters list will be printed and distributed to the 85 electoral districts across the province for use in administering voting procedures at over 1,700 advance and general voting locations.
Eligible voters who are not registered are still able to register when they go to vote, but they may face line-ups and delays and will not receive Where to Vote cards in advance. In each of the past three provincial elections more than 200,000 voters waited to register or update their registration until they were at the voting place.
Across the province, the highest rate of voter registration is in the Richmond-Delta region, where 94.22% of voters are registered. The lowest rate is in the North, where 87.91% of voters are registered.
Since February 2 this year, when enumeration efforts began, 383,715 voters have been added to the list, updated or confirmed their registration, or were removed from the list because they moved or passed away.
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Contact:
Kenn Faris
Manager, Event Communications
Phone: 250-387-2949
Email: Kenn.Faris@elections.bc.ca
Statistics: Preliminary list of registration statistics grouped by B.C. regions
Preliminary list of registration statistics listed by electoral district
