By 4:30 p.m. on Friday, B.C.'s chief electoral officer Craig James hopes to have a warehouse filled with at least 1.5-million ballots that will decide the future of the province's harmonized sales tax.
For the next three weeks, Elections BC will have two shifts working each day to verify and count the ballots, with the results to be announced by late August.
"I've challenged Elections BC to release the results on or about Aug. 25," Mr. James told a news conference Thursday.
He said he is hoping to see turnout at least rivalling that of a general election – meaning no less than half of the province's roughly three million registered voters.
The referendum was promised late last year by then-premier Gordon Campbell in response to a fierce public backlash over the introduction of the 12-per-cent tax.
In May, his replacement, Premier Christy Clark, rolled out her "fix" for the tax. She has promised to send out cheques to families with children and low-income seniors, and to lower the HST rate over the next three years – but only if voters reject the opportunity to go back to the old system of a provincial sales tax plus the federal goods and services tax.
Friday is the last day for ballots to be turned in and, with the exception of just a handful of individuals, they must be in Elections BC's possession – or at least processed at Canada Post's sorting facility in Vancouver – by 4:30 pm Friday to be counted.
Mr. James signed an order granting an extension to 30 voters who should have received a referendum package but did not. Elections BC also made one other notable exception – using a courier to deliver 60 ballots to Darwin, Australia, to accommodate sailors aboard the frigate HMSC Ottawa.
Otherwise, the voting process had few hiccups despite a two-week disruption of mail service by Canada Post, said Anton Boegman, assistant chief electoral officer. He noted that until April 7, when the government decided to conduct the vote by mail, Elections BC had been gearing up for a single-day ballot-box event in September. "To turn on a dime and get the mail-out together, send it out and track the packages. … I think it's gone remarkably smoothly."
Only one-third of voters participated in B.C.'s last provincewide, mail-in referendum, in 2002. That was an eight-question ballot on aboriginal treaties, widely boycotted at the urging of first nations.
In this instance, the Fight HST and Smart Tax Alliance – representing the "yes" and "no" sides of the campaign – have been urging voters to take the opportunity to set tax policy.
BC New Democratic Party Leader Adrian Dix has also campaigned against the tax, and spent Thursday urging last-minute voters across the Lower Mainland to extinguish the HST.
During a Vancouver rally, Mr. Dix unfurled a banner featuring 65 items that cost more under the HST.
"The HST applies to a far wider range of goods and services than the PST. In other words, people are paying 7 per cent on many items, including the 65 listed today, that they used to pay zero per cent on," he said, addressing reporters near a bustling intersection.
Mr. Dix said he chose 65 reasons – restaurants, haircuts and bicycles among them – because it seemed "like a nice, round number."
If the HST is rejected, the government estimates it will take 18 to 24 months to restore the old tax system. Mr. Dix called on the government to commit to restoring it exactly as it was, including the PST exemptions on items such as bicycles.
"I believe that we have to go back to the PST as it was on June 30, 2010," he said. "That's the only thing consistent with respect for the voters."
Justine Hunter