VANCOUVER—British Columbians, your next ballot is in the mail. Assuming, of course, there is mail.

Just two days after voters headed to municipal polls across the province, Elections B.C. started posting 3.3 million voter packages Monday for its referendum on whether to change our electoral system to a proportional one.

But on Monday at midnight, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers started rotating strikes in Victoria, one of several cities across Canada hit by the first phase of a contract dispute.

“We’re aware that the CUPW have issued a strike notice,” chief electoral officer Anton Boegman told reporters Monday, adding that he has the option of extending the voting period if there’s a “material impact on people’s ability” to return their ballot by the deadline.

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As it stands now, Elections B.C. must receive ballots in the mail or in-person at any Service B.C. centre by 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 30.

“We don’t anticipate that our schedule will be missed,” Boegman said. “There’s lots of opportunities for people to vote.”

The independent body, which oversees elections and referenda including the two previous ones on proportional representation, announced voters would begin receiving their ballots early this week in the Lower Mainland and urban areas, and later farther away.

Boegman confirmed ballots have to be received by the deadline, not mailed out by then. That means rural areas will have less time to vote than urban ones, since they receive ballots later and must send them earlier to ensure delivery in time.

British Columbia is having a referendum on what voting system we should use for provincial elections.

Ensuring transparent, secure and accessible votes is “a mandate we take very seriously,” Boegman said. “This is an important event for British Columbians. The choice of voting systems impacts voters … and the way that government operates in the legislature.”

Voters are being asked two questions: whether to keep B.C.’s current first-past-the-post voting system or replace it with one that attempts to match popular vote results with legislature seats. It also asks which of three proportional systems they prefer.

Even though Boegman reviewed the two-part ballot question, the referendum has sparked allegations from opponents that it’s “rigged” in favour of the NDP and Greens, particularly since details of how each of three alternative systems would be implemented will be decided by government committee.

It’s the third referendum on proportional representation, but the first to require only a simple majority to pass, rekindling reformers’ hopes of having legislature seats better reflect the popular vote.

An electoral reform vote was a key campaign promise of the New Democrats and is a central principle of the party’s governing pact with the Greens. The mail-in ballot will be issued in October to registered voters.

Two of the three proposals offered for proportional representation have never been tested anywhere in the world — dual member model and the rural-urban model, which blends several including single-transferable vote.

Opponents of changing the way B.C. votes have argued that proportional representation tends to favour fringe and even extremist parties, would reduce the voting power of rural areas of the province and that some of the proposals require larger ridings so MLAs are farther from more constituents.

“Our current simple, stable and successful first-past-the-post system in B.C. … has successfully governed the province for 145 years,” wrote the official no vote proponent, the No BC Proportional Representation Society, in a statement Monday.

“In many other countries around the world that have adopted a proportional representation electoral system … extremist parties win multiple seats in legislature and proceed to hold the balance of power.”

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The Green Party’s critic on electoral reform encouraged British Columbians to vote yes to ending first-past-the-post and replacing it with one of the three alternatives, but her party stopped short of advocating which alternative it preferred.

“Proportional representation will enable us to shift away from a combative, hyper-partisan majoritarian system,” Green MLA Sonia Furstenau said in a statement Monday, “to one where politicians are required to work together.

“It will end the cynical vote-buying in swing ridings and greatly mitigate negative campaigning because politicians will no longer be playing a zero-sum game for all of the power.”

The elections chief said that online voting still remains too risky when it comes to security. Mail-out ballots lack the in-person security of a voting station, however, and Elections B.C. warned that voter fraud is illegal.

“There are significant penalties for voter fraud, including fines up to $20,000, imprisonment for up to two years, or both,” the agency warned on its webpage to request a ballot. “You can only request and vote with your own voting package.”

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