BC Liberals to vote Saturday despite missing voter packages

The BC Liberals will proceed with a vote on Saturday to choose their new leader despite concerns that many members may not have a chance to vote, sources said.

The announcement came just hours after candidate Kevin Falcon suggested the party may have to extend the vote by several days if eligible party members are still unable to cast a ballot because of a snafu with mailing out voting packages.

The BC Liberal party is set to announce the vote results on Saturday at 6:30 pm PT. The winner will become British Columbia's next premier.

But the party's voting apparatus appears to be in disarray after Mr. Falcon revealed on Thursday - when all members should have received a personal identification number needed to cast a ballot - that there were thousands of missing packages.

The president of the company handling the BC Liberal leadership vote said his firm mailed out 90,666 voting packages on Wednesday and Thursday of last week from Ottawa, and he is mystified why large numbers have not been delivered in advance of the party's vote.

The party brass met with representatives for the leadership candidates on Friday afternoon to offer assurances that the problems are being addressed.

Before that meeting started, candidate Mike de Jong said the problems must be fixed or the legitimacy of the vote could be called into question.

"By all accounts this is going to be a very close result - it's essential that everyone qualified to vote be able to do so," he said in an interview Friday. "I'm frustrated because we have worked hard to grow the party ... and I want to make sure that all of them get to participate."

Dean Smith, president of Intelivote Systems Inc., a Nova-Scotia-based electronic voting system company, could not say on Friday how many BC Liberal voters are still waiting for a PIN.

"The only thing I can say is, it is equally distributed amongst everybody because there doesn't seem to be any science or pattern or reason as to why some areas are getting them and some aren't," said.

"This is a real anomaly, we've never had mail-out problems in all the elections we have done."

Party members need a PIN to cast their ballot, either by telephone or online. He said the contingency plan is to hand out PINs over the phone and concerned party members are encouraged to call the helpline set up for the vote.

Intelivote has retained a call centre in Windsor, Nova Scotia, to run the party's helpline but the five workers were overwhelmed when thousands of party members discovered on Thursday that their voting packages had not arrived.

He said there are now 24 staff taking calls to help party members access their PINs and most callers are now getting through. As well, the party is making calls to party members in northern and rural communities to offer to help if they need a PIN.

Mr. Falcon first raised the alarm on Thursday, saying the party has failed to take his campaign's concerns seriously and thousands of party members could be disenfranchised.

George Abbott, the only rural candidate in the race, would not say if he'll back Mr. Falcon's call for an extended vote - which would be a huge embarrassment for the governing party - saying he'll await the outcome of the meeting before offering an opinion.

Mr. Abbott said the problems are not limited to rural communities - he's heard on Friday from party members in the Interior, in Victoria and in Metro Vancouver who did not get a PIN in the mail.

"I'm deeply concerned with that issue and that is why we are working with the party to see if there can be a resolution," Mr. Abbott said. "There is much concern about the legitimacy and integrity of the vote, and that is why the party is working hard right now to do outreach with individuals who may not have received PINs at this point."

While Mr. Abbott avoided criticizing the party - he had previously raised concerns about the veracity of the membership list - senior campaign strategists were clearly frustrated with the party's response.

"To have the whole thing unravel because you couldn't execute - it's messy, there is no question," said one.