Mailing in a ballot will likely be an option for the next municipal election.
Council members agreed the time has come for Squamites to be able to choose their leaders by mail-in ballots, at the Corporate Policy and Government Standing Committee meeting Tuesday afternoon.
“A lot of municipalities do this, there is very prescriptive formulas to do it… we had several requests at the last election for it,” said Mayor Patricia Heintzman.
Election legislation establishes procedures for mail-in ballots.
The decision still has to be ratified at a future council meeting.
For electronic voting, Heintzman said the jury is still out on its effectiveness, but she would like to see Squamish have the option.
The committee agreed to send a letter to the province in support of allowing communities to choose to offer Internet voting.
“We can choose not to do it, but the province needs to change the legislation to allow us to contemplate doing it,” she said.
Council also agreed to send a similar letter to the Union of BC Municipalities.
“My vision would be you can use your mail-in… you can use the Internet – if that is your mode – or you can go to general voting on election day. It wouldn’t be one or the other.”
Robin Arthurs, the district’s general manager of corporate services and chief
election officer for the recent November municipal election, said there would be a lot of checks and balances that would need to be put in place to make sure people don’t vote twice.
