Two Elections, One Province: Your BC Voting Guide
Contents
This blog article includes commonly asked questions about BC’s municipal and provincial elections. Click to navigate to a specific question.
If you live in BC as an eligible voter, you’re in the midst of a very busy election season. We’ve got two upcoming elections for both our local and provincial levels of government.
Is that a bit overwhelming? Yes. Are they both important? Also yes. We’ve got everything you need to know so you’re prepared to hit the polls for both!
Who Is Eligible To Vote?
Municipal (local) elections
To vote in a municipal election, you must:
Be a Canadian citizen
Be at least 18 years old
Have lived in BC for a minimum of six months (since April 23, 2026)
Live in the municipality you’re voting in (no minimum days required)
If you own property elsewhere in BC, you likely qualify as a “non-resident property elector” in that municipality as well. Check your municipality’s website for the specifics.
Provincial elections
To vote in provincial elections, you must meet all of these requirements:
Be a Canadian citizen
Be at least 18 years old
Have lived in BC for a minimum of six months before election day (since April 23, 2026 in this case)
Do I Need To Register?
If you've voted in a previous BC election, you're probably set. But if you haven’t registered before, or you need to update your info, don’t stress! You don’t need to register ahead of time. While early registration makes voting faster, you can register when you go to vote at any polling place, for both elections.
Provincial elections
You can register here, by phone 1-800-661-8683, or on the day of wherever you vote. To register on site at any polling place, you’ll need a way to prove who you are and where you live. There are lots of accepted options for how to do this, including for people who don’t have ID.
If you’re already registered, you’ll likely receive a “where to vote” card in the mail. That counts as one piece of ID you can use at the polling place! If you didn’t receive one, don’t worry––there are other options to prove your identity.
Municipal Elections
The same goes for municipal elections. Most municipalities use the Elections BC registration list, so if you’ve recently voted in BC, you likely received a voter information card in the mail. That’s your ticket to fast, easy voting.
But you can absolutely register on the day you go to vote too. You’ll just need to show who you are and where you live. You have three options to do this.
Option 2: If you don’t have a fixed address, you can register by providing a general location––think intersection or address of a shelter or service you use.
Option 1: Bring 2 pieces of ID. Together, your ID should have your
Name on both pieces
Address on at least 1 piece
Signature on at least 1 piece
There are tons of options for accepted ID ranging from utility bills to prescription bottles, student or status cards, and BC services cards.
Option 3: If you only have 1 piece of ID, or you don’t have ID with your current address, you can make what’s called a “declaration” (a promise) to confirm your address.
What Are We Voting On?
Provincial elections
You’ll vote on one Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for your electoral district (the area you live). To find out where your electoral district is, enter your address here.
British Columbia has 93 MLAs who have seats in the legislature. The leader of the political party that holds the most seats following the election becomes the Premier, and their party forms government.
Municipal elections
Depending on where you live, your ballot may look a bit different. You’ll be voting on 1 Mayor, 6-10 City Councillors, 6-9 School Board Trustees, and (in Vancouver) 7 Park Board Commissioners.
We recommend checking your city’s website to see exactly what’s on your ballot.
For example, in Vancouver, our ballot will include:
1 mayor
10 councillors
9 school board trustees
7 park board commissioners
3 Capital Plan borrowing questions
These ask you to vote yes or no on investing in transportation and street infrastructure (street lights, sidewalks, bridges), community serving and civic essential infrastructure (community centres, fire halls, libraries), and parks and public spaces infrastructure (parks, playgrounds, sports courts).
2 Plebiscite questions, which are non-binding (that means they’re designed to gauge public opinion––the government isn’t required to act on them). The questions are:
Are you in favour of the City of Vancouver strengthening its laws to forbid open-air hard drug (Heroin, Meth, Fentanyl, and Crack) use in public spaces?
Should the City of Vancouver formally ask the Province of BC to convert portions of the old St. Paul’s Hospital, or another similar site, into a secure medical facility that provides acute voluntary and 100-plus involuntary care beds for individuals posing a serious risk to themselves or others due to severe substance use and mental health disorders?
Note: both of these issues are largely federal and provincial jurisdiction.
Wherever you live, a partially filled out ballot is still valid. If you aren’t sure how to answer a specific question, or would rather vote for only a few of the options, that’s absolutely okay! Your ballot will still be counted even if it’s only partially complete.
When, Where, And How Can We Vote?
Provincial Elections
Vote early:
You can vote NOW at any district electoral office (they are open already!) until October 24th. Check where your district electoral office is here and make sure to take a look at the times they are open.
October 16-21 from 8am-8pm is advance voting, which is open to anyone. You can vote at any location in BC.
Vote by mail:
Request a vote-by-mail package online or by calling Elections BC at 1-800-661-8683 before October 18.
Make sure it is completed, sent AND received by mail, or dropped off at any voting place or district electoral office by October 24, 2026 at 8 PM.
Vote on Election Day, October 24 (8am-8pm)
If you registered ahead of time, you’ll receive a “where to vote” card in the mail, with your closest voting locations. You don’t need this to vote, but if you have it, congratulations, that can be one of your two pieces of ID.
You can vote at any polling place in BC.
Municipal Elections
Vote early:
Advance voting dates depend on your municipality, but you can vote at any early voting location! Check your city’s website for exact dates. Some in the Lower Mainland include:
Vancouver: October 3, 7, 10, 13
Richmond: October 3, 7, 8, 9, 10,
Surrey: October 7, 10, 14, 15
Burnaby: October 3, 7, 10
New West: October 7, 8, 9, 10, 14
Delta: October 3, 6, 7
Vote by mail:
Vote by mail also depends on your municipality, so visit your city website for specifics.
There may be different deadlines for having a vote by mail kit sent to you via Canada post vs. picking it up at your elections office.
Be sure you have enough time to return your ballot by the deadline, whether you’re returning it by mail, dropping it off at a designated mail drop box, or returning it to your elections office.
If you requested to vote by mail, but haven’t received it yet - you can still vote in-person for early voting and/or on election day. Just make sure to tell election workers so you can fill out a form that cancels your vote by mail package.
Vote on Election Day, October 17 (8am-8pm)
You can vote at any voting location in your city.
Why Does It Matter?
Both levels of government shape your daily life, from how we move through the city to the services we have access to. Let’s take a look at some key issues and examples of how provincial versus municipal government impacts them.
Transportation
Province: Responsible for highways, major transit funding, and how much the fares are for the buses we ride and the Skytrains we take.
Municipal: Controls things like bus lanes, bike lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, and how close homes get built to transit.
Housing
Province: Tenancy law, like how much your landlord can increase your rent annually, provincewide zoning requirements, and funding for non-market housing.
Municipal: Zoning, which tells us if a 10-story apartment complex can be built somewhere or if it’s only zoned for a single-family home, permitting, which impacts how fast projects get approved, and which neighbourhoods get more homes.
Climate
Province: Carbon pricing, energy policy, resource extraction, and building standards.
Municipal: Urban tree canopy, flood and heat preparedness, EV charging, and how the city plans for growth and emissions.
Health
Province: Hospitals, doctors, health authorities, and the funding behind them.
Municipal: Local government oversees our emergency services like firefighters but also impacts what types of cooling centres are available (think libraries and community centres!), planning of and programming at recreation centres.
Education
Province: decides the curriculum taught in schools
Municipal: The school board impacts the maintenance of school grounds and approves a school board budget (i.e. whether or not your school has enough for school supplies, specialized supports, or class trips).
Whatever issues you care most about, both provincial and municipal levels of government impact them deeply.
Make A Voting Plan
Find your voting place, check the advance dates, and make a plan to vote. Whether it’s setting up a “donuts and democracy” group chat to go vote with your neighbours (and eat donuts afterwards of course) or organizing a bike ride to your nearest polling station, make it fun and bring people along!
Municipal elections have the lowest voter turnout of any election, so we know that a single vote carries more weight than you might think. Both elections are important to participate in as the folks in office impact whose perspectives are brought forward and shape policies that impact our rights and quality of life.
Text your friends, share your voting list, spread the word far and wide! And get out and vote!
