B.C. voters have rejected proportional representation.
Elections BC released the results of the mail-in vote Dec. 20.
A total of 1,403,358 completed voting packages were returned by the deadline, representing returns from 42.6 per cent of registered voters.
Of the 1,378,753 valid votes on the main question, 61.3 per cent were in favour of keeping the current first-past-the-post electoral system, while 38.7 per cent of voters chose PR.
Voters in Powell River-Sunshine Coast, however, went for PR.
The totals were 53.88 per cent (10,799) in favour of changing to PR and 46.12 per cent (9,242) for keeping first past the post. There were 20,227 ballots returned from the riding and 186 were ruled invalid. After the Dec. 7 deadline, Elections BC calculated the turnout for Powell River-Sunshine Coast a 46.9 per cent, among the highest in the province.
Powell River - Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons, who supported PR, was out of the country when the results came in, but said in an email to Coast Reporter that he was glad the people of B.C. had the opportunity to have their say and that the government followed through on its promise of a referendum.
"A lot of people will be disappointed, but I am convinced that getting big money out of politics is a significantly important part of democratic reform, as are our efforts to restrict lobbyists' influence," Simons said. "We know that good governance in BC is possible when governments listen to the citizens as our current government does. I do my best to build bridges with members of all parties, and will continue to do so."
Chief electoral officer Anton Boegman called the referendum an “intense” process and said he was very pleased with the efforts of his team and the use of high-speed tabulators for the first time in B.C.
“Very pleased with some of the innovations we’ve done,” said Boegman, who added that Elections BC was able to report results faster – two weeks as opposed to the four weeks needed for the HST referendum.
Boegman estimated 6,000 packages arrived too late to count, which he called typical for a vote-by-mail process.
A total of 2,461 ballots were rejected because they had no valid responses on either question.
Detailed results are available at www.elections.bc.c.
