If there is one unifying message coming out of the Vancouver council chamber these days, it’s that all eligible voters — no matter what their politics — should cast a ballot in the April 5 byelection.
It was a plea the Greens’ Adriane Carr made during her council resignation speech Jan. 15, and one that a trio of ABC Vancouver councillors emphasized this week in an interview after a council meeting.
“Always exercise your right to vote,” said Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung. “It’s really important to be able to do that.”
While voter turnout in Vancouver civic elections has never reached the levels of provincial and federal elections, more people vote in a general election than in a byelection. Which is a concern for Kirby-Yung, Peter Meiszner and Lenny Zhou.
The trio asked several questions Tuesday of city clerk Katrina Leckovic, who will serve as the city’s chief election officer, about promoting the byelection and getting more people out to vote.
Their concern is based on the voter turnout number in the 2017 byelection: 11 per cent.
In that race, the city offered a vote-by-mail option, had advanced voting days and opened 50 locations on the day of the byelection for people to cast a ballot. This time around, there will be 22 locations.
Advanced voting days
Councillors heard Leckovic say the locations will be equally distributed around the city. Cutting the number of locations in half will also save the city money on hiring staff, she said, noting the city’s byelection team will be pushing vote-by-mail.
“In 2017, vote-by-mail was only available to persons with disabilities and those folks that were out of town,” she said. “It's now available to everybody. So we feel like that's one way where people may take advantage of that. We are planning for hopefully a larger number of users taking up on vote-by-mail.”
Advanced voting days — one on March 26 and another on April 1 — will be both at city hall.
Kirby-Yung questioned the timing of the first advanced voting day, which occurs during spring break, and whether the byelection could have been held sometime in March, in advance of spring break.
The Vancouver Charter states that the chief election officer has to set a byelection date within 80 days of being appointed. City staff knew a byelection would be necessary after OneCity’s Christine Boyle was elected in the fall provincial election.
But council had to wait for Boyle’s resignation — which came Dec. 12 — and then wait until the next public meeting — which was Jan. 21 — before appointing the chief election officer.
In between those dates, Carr resigned, meaning a second seat will now be up for grabs in the byelection, which staff estimates will cost $2 million.
“The planning of a byelection is a very short timeline already,” Leckovic said in response to Kirby-Yung’s question about an earlier byelection date. “We are already working under 80 days. We do have a lot of statutory requirements, deadlines. So condensing that I think would be quite a challenge for us.”
Vote-by-mail
Zhou asked whether fewer voting locations will mean a poor voter turnout.
Leckovic: “I don’t know if that’s going to be a factor. I think it's other factors, in terms of who may be running for the election, or other political factors potentially.”
Zhou asked how the city’s byelection team will reach the large number of residents whose first language is not English. He specifically mentioned the Chinese and South Asian communities.
“We're going to be doing lots of paid and organic social media campaigns in multiple languages to meet different target audiences,” said Natti Schmid, the city’s elections communications manager. “We're also going to do paid advertising and multilingual outlets as well.”
On voting day, the city will use what Leckovic described as a “language line,” where on-demand language support will be available in more than 180 languages.
Staff will also partner with neighbourhood houses, libraries and community centres to distribute posters and pamphlets in multiple languages. Carnegie Community Centre will serve as a voting location for Downtown Eastside residents.
Top six most spoken languages
Meiszner raised concerns about the city relying on a QR code on a postcard — which will be mailed to residents — to direct them to the city’s website for more information about the byelection.
“My parents don't know how to use QR codes, so they're not going to go to a website,” he said. “Is there any possibility of including, say, English and other widely spoken languages in Vancouver on that postcard?”
Schmid: “We are sending off fulsome materials for translation. So it's definitely something we can explore in terms of which snippets to include on the postcard.”
Schmid said in an email Thursday that based on feedback from council, staff will revisit the format of the postcard to improve language access. The intent is to include information in the top six most spoken languages in Vancouver, in alignment with the city’s language access policy.
That includes English, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Spanish, Punjabi and Vietnamese. Schmid noted the design of the postcard is not finalized “and this may be subject to change due to space limitations.”
The trio of ABC councillors acknowledged the April 5 byelection will be a test of how residents think the party has performed since winning a majority in 2022.
“I have to say I hope that they like what we're doing,” Kirby-Yung said. “We're tackling some of the tough issues. That's what people asked us to do. That's not always popular, but in my opinion, it's paying off.”
ABC plans to run two candidates in the byelection. The Greens, COPE and OneCity will run one candidate each. TEAM for a Livable Vancouver plans to run two candidates, with former councillor and mayoral candidate, Colleen Hardwick, seeking to become one of the party’s nominees.
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