Bulletin: Statement by the Chief Electoral Officer

June 7, 2013

VICTORIA – Elections BC is asking the media to help inform the voters of voting area 018 in the Vancouver-Langara electoral district about an incident that occurred on Tuesday, May 14 – General Voting Day for the 40^th Provincial General Election. 

After the completion of the initial count of ballots at Sir William Van Horne Elementary School, according to Elections BC procedures, an election official transported the ballot boxes for the voting place to the district electoral office at 203-8268 Granville St.  Upon arrival at the district electoral office, the ballot box for voting area 018 was unaccounted for. 

A letter has been sent to all residential addresses within the voting area.  We are reaching out to the residents of voting area 018 in Vancouver-Langara to ensure they take action to protect their personal information.  The nature of information in the voting book varies:

1. If you were not registered and did not vote, the voting book does not contain any information about you.
2. If you were pre-registered but did not vote, the voting book contains your name and residential address.
3. If you were pre-registered and you voted, the voting book contains your name, residential address and signature.
4. If you are one of the 10 voters who registered or updated your information when you voted, the voting book contains your name, residential address, signature, date of birth, and may also include your driver’s licence number if you provided that information at the time of voting.

The ballot box contained:

• 141 tabulated General Voting Day ballots for those who voted at their assigned voting place (all votes cast from this voting area were included in the initial and final vote counts)
• 259 unused ballots
• the voting area voting book (used to strike-off voters, record new voters, and/or record changes to voter registration information), including 10 voter registration updates for voters who registered or updated their voter registration in conjunction with voting
• and, instructional election official materials 

The Vancouver Police Department and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner have been advised. 

All of the district electoral office supplies and voting materials were returned to the Elections BC warehouse on Wednesday, June 5, allowing us to conduct a final search for the missing voting book.  This final search did not recover the voting book. 

We sincerely apologize for this incident and encourage voters of voting area 018 in the Vancouver-Langara electoral district to forward their questions to Privacy Officer, Amie Foster at 1-800-661-8683 or Amie.Foster@elections.bc.ca.   Questions may also be forwarded to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner at 250-387-5629. 

Keith Archer, Ph.D.
Chief Electoral Officer
British Columbia 

Attachment: Vancouver-Langara voting area 018 map