How Elections Work
What happens in an election
Elections are how people choose who will be their Member of the Legislative Assembly (or MLA, for short). Like board games or sports, elections have their own set of rules. In B.C., we use a set of rules from the Election Act, which is based on a system called Single Member Plurality (SMP).
Under these rules, people vote by marking one choice on a ballot that lists the candidates for the electoral district where the voter lives. After all of the ballots are counted, the person with the most votes is declared the winner and becomes the MLA for that district. This type of electoral system is often called First-Past-the-Post.
Two kinds of election
There are two kinds of elections in B.C.
General election: All of the voters in the province choose their MLAs at the same time.
By-election: In a by-election, only the voters in a certain area (called an electoral district) choose their MLA. By-elections are held to fill an empty seat in the Legislative Assembly, which happens when an MLA resigns, is recalled, dies or is disqualified from sitting.
Electoral districts
B.C. is divided into areas called electoral districts (EDs). Each MLA represents one ED, and is elected by the voters in that ED. In an election, voters can only vote in the ED where they are a resident. Students who are going to school away from home can choose which ED to vote in: their home ED or the ED where they are living while at school.
Know Your Electoral District
When elections take place
General elections are held every four years on the second Tuesday in May. The next general election is scheduled to take place on May 14, 2013. There will be 85 MLAs to elect.
By-elections happen whenever an empty seat in the Legislative Assembly needs to be filled. More than one by-election can be held on the same day.
The election period
An election usually lasts 51 days. It begins when the writ of election is issued. A writ is a formal order signed by the Chief Electoral Officer and the Lieutenant Governor calling for an election to be held. In a by-election, a writ is only issued for the ED holding an election. In a general election, a writ is issued for every ED in the province. The day the writs are issued is called Day 0.
The election period ends on Day 50 when the writs are returned to the Chief Electoral Officer. A lot happens between Day 0 and Day 50. In a general election, Elections BC hires more than 32,000 election and voter registration officials during this period. It rents dozens of offices and hundreds of voting places. It produces voters lists and oversees voting across the province, including at lighthouses, on naval ships and in corrections facilities.
Advance voting in a general election is held on Days 22 – 25; the Wednesday through Saturday the week before General Voting Day. Anyone can vote at advance voting, so it is really convenient for people who work or go to school.
General Voting Day, the day when most people vote, falls on Day 28. After voting ends on General Voting Day, most of the ballots are counted and preliminary results are released. The final results are usually released by Day 43, after all the absentee votes are counted and the preliminary results are confirmed.
Between Day 43 and Day 50 Elections BC closes down its temporary offices and helps conduct any judicial recounts that may be needed.
Then, Elections BC staff take a deep breath and start the countdown to the next election!
