Elections BC Recognizes the Passing of Former Chief Electoral Officer Harry Neufeld

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 12, 2021

VICTORIA – Elections BC would like to acknowledge with sadness the passing of former Chief Electoral Officer Harry Neufeld on Wednesday, June 30, 2021. Mr. Neufeld served as British Columbia’s Chief Electoral Officer from 2002 to 2010.

Mr. Neufeld first joined Elections BC in 1982, as part of a team that applied information technology to electoral administration for the first time. Thanks to his efforts, British Columbia was the first province in Canada to successfully automate its voters list. In the 1990s, Mr. Neufeld served as Elections Canada’s first Director of Information Technology, and was responsible for computerization of voters lists, digitized mapping services, and general office automation. As British Columbia’s Chief Electoral Officer, he oversaw two general elections (in 2005 and 2009), two enumerations and two province-wide referenda. He also served as a commissioner for the 2008 Electoral Boundaries Redistribution.

After completing his term as Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Neufeld shared his wealth of experience as a consultant in electoral management in jurisdictions around the world, including Australia, Botswana, Britain, Guinea, Guyana, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Libya, Mexico, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Uganda, and Zimbabwe as well as numerous electoral jurisdictions in the United States and Canada.

Read Mr. Neufeld’s obituary.

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Contact:
Melanie Hull
Communications Advisor
Elections BC
Phone: 778-974-3276
Email: Melanie.Hull@elections.bc.ca
Website: elections.bc.ca

Elections BC is the independent, non-partisan Office of the Legislature responsible for administering electoral processes in British Columbia under provincial legislation, including the Election Act, Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, Recall and Initiative Act and Referendum Act.