Vancouver votes: 25 polls open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. in 2-seat byelection

Vancouverites will elect two new people to city council on Saturday, nine weeks after candidates began coming forward to run in a byelection seen as a citywide referendum on the party with a majority on council. 

Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 25 locations across the city.

Vancouver residents 18 years of age or older can vote and, if unregistered, can do so at voting locations with two pieces of identification or by other lower-barrier methods.

The City of Vancouver's byelection portal is here.

The two-seat byelection comes 2½ years after Mayor Ken Sim and his centre-right ABC Vancouver party swept to victory, taking seven of 10 council seats.

The party was elected to a four-year mandate on a platform of public safety, fiscal responsibility and development and density but has since adopted other priorities such as dissolving the elected park board, pausing net-new supportive housing in the city and entertaining investments in bitcoin.

ABC's push to improve the city on its terms has met with some backlash and motivated progressive parties and candidates to try to claim the two seats and temper the party's control of the council.

"After two years of record high taxes, scandal and dysfunction, Vancouver has had enough," said Team for a Livable Vancouver candidate Colleen Hardwick, a councillor from 2018 to 2022, in a campaign video.

Hardwick and newcomer Theodore Abbott, also with TEAM, want changes in how council is approving development and density, with the Broadway plan as an example.

Meanwhile, OneCity's Lucy Maloney, COPE's Sean Orr and the Greens' Annette Reilly are vowing to make council more co-operative and egalitarian if elected.

ABC campaigned on its record in office, saying law enforcement now has the tools and resources it needs to fight crime, housing development is happening faster, and there is less red tape at city hall.

Turnout to determine winners

Whoever wins will most likely come down to how many voters they are able to mobilize.

In the last Vancouver byelection in 2017, Hector Bremner won with around 13,000 votes after barely 11 per cent of the electorate voted.

Political watchers say they're surprised that municipal elections, and even more so, civic byelections, have had far lower turnout than provincial or federal elections, considering that city council decisions more directly affect residents.

"You hope that local government would get the highest rate of voter turnout because those are the services and programs and facilities that touch our lives every day," said Terri Evans, who teaches political science at Langara College in Vancouver.

"And so it's always surprising that people pay less attention, participate less in municipal elections."

Record advance voting

The City of Vancouver says that in two days of advance voting for the April 5 byelection, 7,671 votes were cast while 6,400 mail-in ballots had been requested.

Ballots cast in advance voting were an 84 per cent increase over 2017.

Evans said it's not assured that just because people took advantage of advance voting or mail-in voting, that it will result in higher voter participation overall.

The city says it's ready for it, though, with additional staff hired to help at polling stations if they see lineups like those experienced during the two advance voting days at city hall.

"Vancouverites' commitment to participating in this democratic process is a testament to our community's civic spirit, and we're grateful for the patience and positivity voters have shown at the polls," said an email from Natti Schmid, the city's elections communications and outreach manager.

WATCH | CBC News explains why this byelection matters:

Saturday’s Vancouver byelection seen as referendum on ruling ABC party's performance

21 days ago

Duration 2:14

Vancouver is set to elect two new city councillors in a byelection to be held on April 5. The poll comes two and half years into the council's four-year mandate. And as Chad Pawson reports, it’s being seen as a referendum on the direction of the ruling party.

Updates about polls and voting on Saturday can be found on the city's X account here.

The 13 candidates on the ballot will appear in this order, which was randomly determined on March 7:

• Guy Dubé. 
• Karin Litzcke.
• Rollergirl.
• Charles Ling.
• Ralph Kaisers, ABC Vancouver.
• Lucy Maloney, OneCity.
• Jeanifer Decena.
• Jaime Stein, ABC Vancouver.
• Sean Orr, Coalition of Progressive Electors.
• Colleen Hardwick, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.
• Theodore Abbott, TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.
• Gerry McGuire.
• Annette Reilly, Green Party of Vancouver.

Results

Voters can watch live results on Saturday night after 8 p.m. by visiting vancouver.ca/vote.

CBC News will also report the results on its 10:30 p.m. local newscast, which can be watched online here.