Feeling confused? The ‘logistical nightmare’ of overlapping elections in B.C.

While some political watchers worry B.C.’s duelling races could cause voter fatigue and low turnout, others argue the heightened political debate could boost voter engagement in the campaigns.

“There’s a possibility that it actually could increase right now because there’s so much focused attention on politics,” said Sanjay Jeram, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University.

There isn’t a lot of precedent in Canada for political scientists to study the effect of overlapping elections, Jeram said. But he believes the public’s tendency to pay more attention to provincial elections could elevate the visibility of the municipal races, which typically have lower voter turnout.

“I actually think it might increase turnout,” Jeram said.

Hamish Telford, though, isn’t so sure.

“I do fear that we could see lower turnout in both of these elections because of this overlap, confusion, voter fatigue,” said Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley.

In recent years, only about one-third of registered voters cast ballots in municipal elections in B.C. In 2022, that fell to 19 per cent in Burnaby and 17 per cent in Langley City.

“You’re already having councils selected by a tiny proportion of voters, and now you add the distraction of the B.C.-wide campaign,” Conseco said.

Voter turnout for the 2024 provincial election was closer to 60 per cent.

Telford noted an increasing number of voters can no longer get information on local candidates from community newspapers or radio stations because so many have closed down, requiring people to do their own research. Telford, who lives in Abbotsford, wonders if residents will be prepared to do that for this fall’s back-to-back elections.

Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute of Public Opinion Research, said she could see either possibility being true: the provincial race subsuming the municipal one or, alternatively, shining a brighter spotlight on the local competitions because people are “paying more attention to politics” than usual.

It’s hard to know which is more likely since the last example of simultaneous campaigns was 40 years ago.

“It hasn’t happened since Expo Ernie was doing his thing,” she said of the 1986 World Fair mascot.

Advance voting for the provincial campaign is scheduled for Oct. 16 to 21, a stretch that includes the Oct. 17 municipal election day. And polling stations for all types of elections are often in the same public places, such as schools and community centres, Conseco said.

“It could be complicated,” he said.

But synchronous voting times could increase turnout, Jeram mused, if residents can cast ballots for both elections on the same day or mail their ballots at the same time.

Some municipal and provincial parties have similar logos and names, which may make it harder for voters to track which candidate is running for which level of government, Canseco said.

For example, the logo for the Conservative Electors Association, which promotes centre-right municipal candidates, is a wavy ocean and tree at the base of a blue capital C. The Conservative Party of B.C. has a blue logo with a wavy ocean, mountain and sun at the base of a capital C.

This could also be a challenge for Vancouver mayoral candidate Pete Fry, with the Green Party of Vancouver, Canseco said: “He might be knocking on doors, and people are asking him if he’s running with (provincial Green Leader) Emily Lowan.”