3) Disrespects candidates
In the 2021 Canadian election, there were 11 days between the end of MP candidate registration and the start of voting at advance polls.
Each candidate discovers that they haven't finished making their electoral pitch but citizens are deciding and voting regardless of the candidate's best efforts.
Not very respectful of the sacrifices, of family time and privacy, candidates have made with the intention of serving as a Member of Parliament or a Member of the Legislative Assembly.
The disrespectfully shortened time is part of the system. One nefarious result of these early voting opportunities is the systemic dissing of all candidates.
To properly respect the time and effort that candidates contribute to the election race, almost every voter should wait until the end of the election and mark their choice in person on the paper ballot at a neighbourhood voting place.
4) Destroys simplicity
It's a process that's easy to understand when most of us have our voting opportunity on one day at the end of a 4 or 5 week campaign and the winner is known by the end of that day.
This simplicity is lost to the complexity of multiple voting day dates, times, locations and the many vote-by-mail rules.
5) Develops higher costs
There are costs associated with rental of space for advance poll locations and the hiring of, or increasing the hours of, poll workers.
The vote-by-mail kit is more expensive to produce and distribute than a single sheet of paper, the ballot, handed out in-person at the voting place.
6) Depends on more supervision and rules
The paid temporary workers and volunteer scrutineers need supervision from the full time electoral office staff.
The number of rules expand considerably to cover each convenient and extra way to vote - to the delight of the bureaucrats involved.
7) Delivers a message that elections hardly matter
A growing number of citizens are happy to vote for their preferred party as early as possible. These folks close themselves off from spontaneous, unrehearsed developments during the campaign and appear happy to thumb their nose to any candidate who wants to inform them about reasons they may not otherwise have considered.
These party loyalists don't need an election campaign. They are not interested in other points of view. In Canada and British Columbia this is their prerogative.
But our legislated voting opportunities should challenge everyone to be patient, to wait for the full election campaign to play itself out and then give their decision at the end of the designated campaign period.
Legislation should not tilt the playing field in any way.
