Voting Modernization and
Communication Strategy
Changes you will see in the voting place and
how we will be communicating with voters
Voting Modernization





Putting voter at center of process
Making voting more efficient
Reducing opportunity for administrative error
Within current legislation
New processes for:




Advance voting
Absentee voting
General voting
Vote-by-Mail
Advance voting
Challenges:
 Increasing participation
20.00
18.00
16.00
14.00
12.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
• Inefficient process
– Multiple forms with same
information
Advance
voting
• Advance voting
certificate, voter
registration form, voting
book
– Bottleneck at point
where voters get
Advance Voting
Certificate
• Out-of-ED voters
Advance voting
New tools & processes:
 IO to verify ED on WTV
 “Express lane” for advance
voters with WTV card
 Stamped/signed by official at
voting station (becomes AVC)
 80% plus voters in by-elections
used this model
 Message: “Bring your WTV
card!”
Advance voting
New tools & processes:
 Combined advance voting
certificate and voter
registration form
 Voter name/address only
written once
 Eliminates possibility of
registration form going
missing
 Used by 20% of voters; of
those approx 20-25% also
registered/ updated
Advance voting
New tools &
processes:
 Voting
place maps
 Satellite
images
 ED
boundaries
 Hand-held
booklet and
wall map
New questions/tools for IO at Advance Voting
1. Do you have a current/accurate WTV
card?
2. Are you a resident of this ED?
3. Do you have identification?
Tools
• “Where to Vote”
cards
• New ED maps
• Voters list
• Street index
• Location index
Absentee voting
Challenges:
 Missing registration forms
 Duplication of effort (certification envelope/
registration form)
 Inefficient process – officials not always busy
Absentee voting
New forms & processes:

Combined certification envelope
and voter registration form

Absentee election officials will
register/update voters at time of
completing certification envelope

By-election results


POM – 12% of absentee voters also
registered/updated
CHH – 19%
General voting
Challenges:
 Duplication of effort (registration form and
voting book)
 Inefficient process; many election officials with
uneven distribution of work
 Declining overall voter registration/updating when
voting, but examples of bottleneck at registration
tables at closing!
 Not always busy
 Not voter-centric
 Showing ID an both registration and voting stations
 Sent from voting station to registration station (and
vice-versa)
General voting
New tools and processes:
 Integrate voter
registration form into
voting book
 Registration done at voting
station by VO/VC
 Eliminate stand-alone
registration stations
General voting
New tools &
processes:
 Voting
place maps
 ED
boundaries
 Voting area
catchment
 VA specific
 Hand-held
booklet and
wall map
General voting
Single VA Map
New questions/tools for IO at General Voting
Are you assigned to this voting place?
Are you assigned to another voting place/ED?
Do you have identification?
Tools
•“Where to Vote”
cards
•New VA/VP maps
•Voters list
•Street index
•Location index
Vote by Mail
(s. 106 Alternative Absentee Voting)
Challenges:
 Mail services not uniformly reliable
 28 day cycle is too short for overseas voters
 In 2009, 42% of all voting packages were either not
returned or not returned by the required deadline
 Legislation extremely prescriptive (ie: no email
delivery, etc.)
Vote by mail (s. 106 Alternative Absentee
Voting)
New processes:
 Send packages in advance of Writ being issued
 Voter must not vote until after Writ
 Recent legal opinion; policy & process under development
 Use “Express Mail” when concerned about timing and/or
need “traceability”
IM Voter
Hotel de Ville
8 rue Chambiges
75008 Paris, France
New communication strategy for 2013
 “Vote at Any Voting Place!”
 Promotes wide accessibility of voting
opportunities to BC voters
 Remove perceived barrier to voting
Questions?
Anton Boegman, DCEO (Electoral Operations)
[email protected]
(250) 356-2713