Election confusion: The issue with overlapping elections

British Columbians heading to the polls not once, but twice in just over a week. You got the municipal elections on October the 17th, and then the provincial election on October the 24th. Now, there's some out there that say the overlap has been confusing voters and stretching election workers thin. My next guest is Jenna Stoner, president of the Union of BC Municipalities and a mayoral candidate up in Squamish. Welcome to the program, Jenna.

Hi there, Rob. Thanks for having me.

It, it's absolutely my pleasure, and thank you for doing this on Thanksgiving. You are both the UBCM president and running for mayor in Squamish, so you're seeing this really from both sides. What kind of confusion are you actually hearing from voters on the doorstep?

Yeah, that's correct. So on the ground here in Squamish, as I'm knocking on doors or talking to folks, uh, downtown or outside of coffee shops and the farmers market, uh, there's definitely both frustration and confusion. The understanding of what different orders of government do is already a little bit complex, and now, uh, the added complexity of where you need to vote for which list when and where, um, is adding to that confusion for sure.

So you got the municipal vote on October the 17th, but the provincial advanced voting begins a day earlier on the 16th. So I, I, I think I know the answer to this, but I'm still gonna ask it. Why is that overlap such a problem, especially when the two elections are technically a week apart?

Yeah, that is definitely where we're seeing a lot of the confusion is that advanced voting overlap. Uh, the advanced voting of the provincial election with the general voting day of local municipal elections. Um, so even here in Squamish as one example, the voting places are actually different. So you have to go to one place if you're doing general voting for the municipal election, and then a totally different place if you're gonna go do your early voting for the provincial election. Um, so there's confusion on where folks need to go, when, um, and which list they'll be looking at depending on which voting location they're at. And then it's really just a lot of work for voters. Um, I think, uh, local elections always have a low turnout relative to provincial and federal elections. Um, and part of that is there's really often long lists of candidates. We know many of the Metro Vancouver communities have more than 40 or 50 names on the list. Um, in Squamish here we have 16 candidates running for six council seats. And so there's a lot of education and understanding that voters are already trying to do to understand who their mu- local government candidates are. Um, and then you add new names, new signs, uh, and it gets a little bit confusing.

The UBCM asked the premier not to call a snap election during the municipal campaign. And when they did, I'd be curious to know how local governments reacted when that election was called anyway. Like behind closed doors, did, was it just a slow eyes closed? Uh, what did you do when you finally heard word that this was happening?

Yeah. We continue to be disappointed by the decision that was made. We were pretty public in our call to at least