A savvy Richmond teen has built a website explaining the proportional representation systems British Columbians can vote for in the electoral reform referendum, perhaps helping those around her scratching their heads over ballot.

Maggie Lee, 17, researched, designed and coded a site that’s a no-nonsense guide to the three alternative PR systems (dual member proportional, mixed member proportional and rural-urban proportional) as part of a school project.“Everybody I talked to had no idea. Whether they had read the (Elections BC) guide or not, they were like ‘I don’t know what any of this means’. I decided I would try to help,” she said.

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Maggie Lee, right, says she wants to go into engineering after high school. Here, she drives a Canadian Coast Guard vessel during a visit for girls interested in STEM careers. Photo: Coralie Nairn

She’s enrolled in the SKY Program with the Richmond school board, a self-directed learning program that lets students choose their own projects to complete the curriculum. During Lee’s social studies unit on Parliament and elections, she found herself fascinated by the different electoral systems.“For my final project, I thought this is a relevant issue now since we’re having a referendum.”

Besides getting an A, her goal was to help her family and people at school get a handle on the different systems. But first, she had to crack them herself.

“One challenge was understanding how the systems work. They’re very complicated and they aren’t explained that well. For [some] there are algorithms for how it ends up being proportional and I tried to figure those out.”

After a few weeks researching by looking at online news articles, the Elections BC information package and advocacy group websites, Lee is ready to throw her support behind MMP.

“It’s very similar to what we have. How we vote and we have an MLA who represents us, but there’s also the regional MLAs which make the seats in the legislature more proportional and evens it out a lot,” she said.

But being only 17, Lee won’t be able to cast a ballot this referendum (even though she’s arguably one of the most informed people in the province).

“I kind of wish I could vote. Ugh, only one year,” she said.

She hopes voters choose a form of proportional representation, so that system will be in place once she is eligible to vote. Her message to those who can vote? Get informed.

“This is very important and it could really change who we see in our legislature and what happens in our province.”