Few Lower Mainland cities saw more than 40 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots this weekend to decide their new local governments, according to preliminary election results. In Vancouver, the voter turnout on Saturday has been estimated at about 39 per cent, with 176,744 ballots cast. That's down from 43 per cent in the 2014 civic election. After a hard-fought mayoral race in Surrey, turnout has been estimated at about 33 per cent, while about 32 per cent of eligible voters turned out to vote in Burnaby. Other estimated voter turnouts, calculated from numbers provided by Civic Info B.C., include: Abbotsford: 36 per cent Chilliwack: 39 per cent Coquitlam: 25 per cent Delta: 43 per cent City of Langley: 25 per cent Township of Langley: 30 per cent Maple Ridge: 33 per cent New Westminster: 28 per cent City of North Vancouver: 34 per cent District of North Vancouver: 37 per cent Port Coquitlam: 28 per cent Port Moody: 37 per cent Richmond: 35 per cent West Vancouver: 38 per cent White Rock: 40 per cent Full coverage of the 2018 B.C. Municipal Elections<doc-sep>Voter turnout percentage from around the province on municipal election night. Article content Heavy advance polling in some locations and long lines at voting stations in other places hinted at a potential improvement in voter turnout for British Columbia’s 2018 municipal elections, but that didn’t really pan out. While Vancouver saw a 27-per-cent increase in advance voting ahead of the Oct. 20 ballot, 48,000 compared with 2014, and voting Saturday was marked by long lineups, it remained questionable whether turnout would surpass the 42-per-cent mark achieved in 2014. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Heavy advance polling wasn't prelude to improvement in voter turnout for 2018 municipal elections Back to video The City of Vancouver reported 176,744 votes in the 2018 election compared with 181,707 ballots in 2014. Around the region, with more than half Metro Vancouver municipalities’ mayors deciding not to run again, there were some thoughts that voters might be galvanized by the prospect of renewal. Photo by Jason Payne / PNG Turnout, however, didn’t improve much, if any, even in municipalities such as Burnaby, where voters defeated long-serving mayor Derek Corrigan. There just 33 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, not that much better than the 27 per cent turnout in 2014. Port Moody citizens also voted to reject two-term incumbent Mike Clay, but just 37 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, just a bit better than 34 per cent turnout in 2014. The City of North Vancouver did record a noticeable increase in turnout to elect a new mayor to replace the outgoing Darrell Mussatto. But even in selecting Linda Buchanan, turnout increased only to 34 per cent compared with 25 per cent in 2014. In the city of Vancouver, the length of its ballot, with 21 mayoral candidates and 158 names to choose from in total, played a factor in many of the lineups. With so many names, it took 22 seconds for the computerized vote counters to read each ballot. In the end, three Vancouver polling stations stayed open beyond the 8 p.m. deadline to accommodate voters who were still in line as the hour approached.<doc-sep>Send this page to someone via email As Vancouverites head to the polls for the 2018 civic election, some have turned to social media to report long lines and problems with ballot reading machines. In a bid to prevent voter congestion, the city posted updates to Twitter throughout the day with lists of voting places with high and low turnout. Does your voting place look busy? Here's an update as of 5pm — many places with no lines! Find more locations: https://t.co/x1wkFZ1zv2 #VancouverVotes pic.twitter.com/XTKRqsncso — City of Vancouver (@CityofVancouver) October 21, 2018 Vancouver voters are permitted to vote at any of the more than 100 polling places in the city. However that wasn’t enough to blunt criticism from some disgruntled voters, many of whom pointed the finger at the city’s digital ballot reading machines. In a lineup of passively irritable locals, at a polling station with a disheveled air, with a slow, glitchy ballot machine: democracy rose ever glorious #vancouver #vanpoli #vanelxn18 pic.twitter.com/Ldzn0m9g8O — Rahat Kurd (@RahatKurd) October 20, 2018 @CityofVancouver #VancouverVotes #carnegie volunteers great, but 1 not working ballot machine – Vancouver admin terrible terrible ppl dropping ballot not voting — Beverley O'Neil (@BeverleyComic) October 20, 2018 Vancouver voting a bit slow. Bottleneck is the actual ballot-reading machine, which seems slow and flaky pic.twitter.com/wPN7TNNl2k — Tim Bray (@timbray) October 20, 2018 Hey @CityofVancouver, what's the hold-up at the voting stations? It shouldn't take 2+ hours to wait in line to vote. Why is it so difficult to vote in Vancouver? #vancouverDOESNTvote #vancouvervotes — Bumfuzzle (@Bumfuzzle4) October 20, 2018 Story continues below advertisement I saw the same thing happening at Kensington community centre — a volunteer collecting ballots for people who wanted to leave the lineup early. About a dozen in hand. Not cool, and definitely a problem with lack of machines. — Nic Waller (@nic_waller) October 21, 2018 The city said its tabulation machines were working normally, and that the longer, 22-inch ballots take a bit longer than normal to process. It added that the process can take longer if a ballot is rejected on the first pass through the machine, and asked voters to be patient. However, while voters at a number of polling stations reported long waits and bottlenecks, it’s not yet clear if turnout will be any higher than in previous years. According to the city, more than 58,000 people had voted by 2 p.m. — halfway through the voting day — while 48,000 people cast advance ballots for a total of 106,000. Back in 2014, when just 44 per cent of voters turned out, 181,707 ballots were cast. Polls close at 8 p.m.<doc-sep>
Send this page to someone via email The ballots have been counted, and a wave of change has swept across Metro Vancouver with more than a dozen new mayors elected and a few upsets. However, despite a generational change at the level of civic government, turnout across the Lower Mainland remained dismal in 2018. READ MORE: Mike Hurley ends political dynasty with mayoral victory in Burnaby Results from early voters in Vancouver had suggested the possibility that there would be a bump in turnout. The city saw 48,000 people cast an early ballot — 10,000 more than in the 2014 election. Many municipalities are not reporting their turnout yet, however it is possible to estimate voter participation by comparing the number of ballots cast versus the number of eligible voters, as recorded by CivicInfo BC. Story continues below advertisement In some cases, turnout actually declined this year. In the City of Vancouver just 39.43 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, down from 42.32 per cent in 2014, while New Westminster turnout dipped from 29.97 to 27.51 per cent, according to CivicInfo BC data. WATCH: Former firefighter Mike Hurley wins Burnaby election 2:14 Former firefighter Mike Hurley wins Burnaby election Former firefighter Mike Hurley wins Burnaby election – Oct 21, 2018 Elsewhere in the region there were gains, however only two municipalities — Anmore and Belcarra — cracked the 50 per cent threshold. Some of the areas with the strongest improvement included Delta, which climbed from 31 per cent in 2014 to 42.77 per cent in 2018; West Vancouver, which climbed from 27.15 per cent to 38.28 per cent; and Chilliwack, which climbed from 25.57 per cent to 38.94 per cent. Story continues below advertisement Burnaby also saw improvement, climbing to 33.46 per cent from 27.3 per cent. READ MORE: Former NDP MP Kennedy Stewart elected mayor of Vancouver The City of Langley, where former provincial cabinet minister Peter Fassbender was defeated by Val van den Broek in the race for mayor, had the dubious distinction of the worst turnout in the Lower Mainland, with just 25.22 per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot. However, even that poor showing was an improvement from 2014, when just 22.42 per cent of voters showed up. Below is a full list of estimated voter turnout in 2018 versus 2014, with data derived from CivicInfo BC.