Metro Vancouver residents will find out on Thursday morning whether voters said yea or nay to the region's controversial transportation plebiscite.

Chief electoral officer Keith Archer will release the results at 10 a.m.

More than 698,900 residents, representing 44.7 per cent of the 1.56 million registered voters in Metro Vancouver, cast a ballot in the mail-in referendum, which asks residents to vote Yes or No to a proposed 0.5-per-cent sales tax increase.

The tax is expected to generate $250 million annually and be used to fund more buses, better road maintenance, rapid transit along the Broadway corridor in Vancouver and light rail in Surrey.

Polls have suggested the proposed tax will be rejected, despite the Yes side spending millions of dollars to promote the tax. The Metro Vancouver mayors' council and TransLink spent $5.8 million of taxpayers' money to promote a Yes vote, while the No spent just under $40,000 through donations.

Jordan Bateman, who has led the campaign against a half-per-cent sales tax hike to pay for transportation upgrades, said he’s looking forward to the public’s decision.

“The No TransLink Tax campaign supporters and volunteers are eagerly anticipating the results of the vote,” Bateman said Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation has said he expected the count to be close but predicted the Yes side would prevail.

Greg Moore, the mayor of Port Coquitlam, credited the Yes forces for their efforts.

ticrawford@vancouversun.com

With a file from Kelly Sinoski and The Canadian Press

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