It looks like everyone with an address in Sechelt will be able to vote in the upcoming municipal election Nov. 19, whether they are on the Coast or not.
District staff presented a proposed election procedures bylaw at the July 13 Sechelt committee of the whole meeting, which included the allowance for mail-in voting.
Staff explained the option to cast votes by mail-in ballot was offered under the election act last year, and Sechelt council has the option to include it in the upcoming November election.
"I've simply added it for council's consideration. If you don't want to do mail ballot voting, approve the bylaw without section five," said director of corporate services Jo-Anne Frank.
Most councillors were in favour of mail-in ballot voting; however, Coun. Keith Thirkell was strongly against it, saying it gave off-Coast recreational voters a "disproportionate influence on matters pertaining to the day-to-day operations of the municipality."
"Democracy belongs to those who show up," Thirkell said.
Coun. Warren Allan spoke in favour of the motion.
"Recreational voters may decide to vote against something, but they have absolutely every right to cast a ballot, so I have to support this as an effort to be more inclusive," Allan said.
At a previous committee meeting, Allan brought up the idea of a computerized voter database to ensure no one votes more than once, but at the July 13 meeting, staff noted there would be "significant technological challenges" to implementing the plan.
"Other municipalities that have created such a system have their own fibre optic network infrastructure," said the staff report. "The District will need to rely on a service provider to link with each voting station. In some cases, we will need to reconfigure the voting location or purchase and install wireless routers to access the Internet."
Frank said the cost to set up the system might be worth it if there was any history of "double voting" in the District.
"There is no documented evidence that double voting has been an issue in Sechelt in the past," she said.
Council seemed happy with the bylaw and accompanying report and endorsed giving it the required readings, which were done at the July 20th council meeting.
At Wednesday's meeting only Thirkell and Mayor Darren Inkster voted against the motion.
