Long waits a defining aspect of Vancouver byelection, report finds – BC [Video]

A City of Vancouver report into last month’s council byelection says delays caused by a lack of capacity became a “defining aspect” of election day, which saw some voters wait more than three hours to cast their ballots.

The report to council submitted ahead of a meeting on Tuesday says the long waits came after the city decided to halve the number of voting places from 50 in a 2017 byelection, to 25 on April 5, citing costs, the availability of vote-by-mail and historically low turnout.

The number of election officials assigned to register voters was meanwhile cut from 416 to 150, and combined with an increased turnout, this meant each worker had to deal with more than three times as many voters than in 2017.

Now the city is promising improvements for the general election next year, including plans to increase the number and size of polling stations, better …