The countdown to the 2021 federal election is now at five days.
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot was last night (Sept. 14) at 6 p.m. and while numbers are not final by Elections Canada, it appears this method of voting is not as popular for eligible Tri-City residents.
As of 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Elections Canada is reporting 5,722 vote-by-mail kits were requested by constituents in Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam, of which 34.8 per cent of that total have been signed, sealed and delivered back (1,990).
In Port Moody-Coquitlam, 5,798 mail-in voting kits have been requested by eligible voters — 35.3 per cent of ballots have been sent back to Elections Canada, or 2,046.
In an email to the Tri-City News, Elections Canada spokesperson Andrea Marantz the numbers may slightly be adjusted in the next day as some applications may have been processed near the deadline.
"The kits sent to people voting by mail is the most interesting number, because it indicates people who are choosing to vote by mail rather than those who must vote this way because they are away from home."
Nationwide, Elections Canada says there have been more than 1.2 million voting kits requested and 606,699 (50.5 per cent) returned as of Sept. 14 (11:59 p.m.).
The organization adds, as of mid-August, its analysis showed that between two to three million Canadians may opt to vote by special ballot.
During the last federal election in 2019, there were 643,462 requests for special ballot, with 101,121 of those from British Columbia.
If you requested a vote-by-mail kit, you must send it back and can not vote by any other method.
Tri-City residents who did not register for a mail-in ballot, request to vote at an Elections Canada office or cast a ballot during the advanced voting process can now only vote on election day Monday (Sept. 20). Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Advanced voting ended at 9 p.m. on Monday (Sept. 13). The deadline to register to vote by special ballot at an Elections Canada office has passed as well (Sept. 14, 6 p.m.).
The Tri-City candidates for this year's snap-election are as follows (in alphabetical order):
COQUITLAM-PORT COQUITLAM
- Katerina Anastasiadis (Conservative)
- Kimberly Brundell (People's Party)
- Laura Dupont (NDP)
- Ron McKinnon (Liberal)
PORT MOODY-COQUITLAM
- Will Davis (Liberal)
- Desta McPherson (People's Party)
- Nelly Shin (Conservative)
- Roland Verrier (Marxist-Leninist Party)
- Bonita Zarrillo (NDP)
- with a file from Jess Balzer, Burnaby Now
