Voting in Hope? Here’s what you need to know

With voting for Hope’s mayor, council and school board trustees one day away, The Hope Standard sat down with local election officials to get the details on who can vote and how the process works.

Who can vote?

Anyone who fulfills the following criteria can vote in the Oct. 20 local election:

- 18 years old

- A Canadian citizen

- A resident of B.C. for at least six months immediately prior to the election

- A resident OR an owner of property in the district for at least 30 days prior to the election

RELATED: The Hope Standard’s full 2018 election coverage

What types of ID are needed?

Voters need to bring two pieces of identification with them to the polling station, which combined identify their identity, their current address and has a signature.

“That can be in various means, but we have to have all three on two pieces of ID,” said chief electoral officer Jim Delnea. “Sometimes the misconception is they can use their carecard/drivers license as two pieces, because it’s on one card. It has to be two separate cards according to the legislation.”

Passports are acceptable as a secondary piece of identification, but voters who bring this as an ID have to bring another piece showing their current address. The reason for this is the holder of the passport writes in their address into the passport.

“We always want to ensure that someone is entitled to vote, (gets to) vote…So we don’t want to turn people away for things, we want to give them every opportunity they can,” said Jessica Harknett, deputy chief election officer.

Are there any exceptions?

Harknett and Delnea have the ability to do what is called a solemn declaration of a person’s identity, which would serve as a secondary piece of ID. Voters doing a solemn declaration must still have one primary piece of ID.

People who are immobile and cannot come into the voting building can do what is called curbside voting. In this case, election officials will bring an election package outside to the individual. This individual still needs to meet the voting requirements and have ID.

Where do I vote?

Voting will take place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20 at the Hope recreation centre. The address is 1005 6 Avenue.

What does the voting process look like?

Voters will be registered at the voting place and guided through the voting procedure by staff.

Voters are given a ballot with the names of two mayors, thirteen candidates for council (in alphabetical order) and six Hope school trustee candidates (their names in a different order as the names are picked by lot, rather than organized alphabetically).

Instead of a check mark or X, voters are asked to shade in the bubble/circle beside the candidate of their choice.

Voters will mark their ballots behind a booth, then they will place their ballot into an electronic voting machine. The machine reads each ballot, spitting back out any ballots which are unintentionally spoiled i.e. if a voter votes for two mayoral candidates, the machine will not accept their ballot.

Ballots are read by the voting machine, then they are stored in a big black box attached to the voting machine.

Delnea and Harknett agreed it’s great to see first-time voters at the polls, of which there have been several at advanced voting days.

“Our desire as election officials is just to make sure the opportunity is there, that it isn’t hindered by anything. That people can feel easy and free to come in and vote…we provide chairs, handicap access, to make it a good experience,” Delnea said.

“And we’re seeing that in that parents are bringing their young people in, who are just turning 18 to vote. Which is something to smile about.”

RELATED: Contenders for Hope, regional district and school district announced

How many candidates do I have to vote for?

The ballot for residents of Hope includes three mayoral candidates, 13 council candidates and six school trustee candidates. Voters can choose up to one for mayor, up to six for council and up to three for school trustee, but are not obligated to vote for this amount.

“They can even go in and vote for one school trustee if they want, they don’t even have to vote for mayor and council,” Harknett said, adding elections officials are emphasizing this with voters in the 2018 election.

“We’re making this very clear in this election, because we have had questions about that.”

When will we know the results of the vote?

After polls close at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20, the vote tallying begins. The Hope Standard will have election results on our homepage (hopestandard.com) as soon as they are announced.