TEAM CHARGES CITY WITH VOTER SUPPRESSION IN RECENT BY-ELECTION
- Vote Team
- May 18
- 2 min read
VANCOUVER, MAY 19 – The city’s April 5 by-election saw widespread voter suppression, says TEAM for a Livable Vancouver.
A recent report by researcher Thomas Kroeker estimates that 33,794 people didn’t vote because of long wait times at polling stations (the report can be accessed via the TEAM website). This was the result of mismanagement or outright intention.
Despite a real increase in the by-election budget, voting places and election staff were cut dramatically – without explanation. The number of voting places was reduced by half – from 50 in 2017, to 25 in 2025.
Kroeker says Chief Electoral Officer Katrina Leckovic’s post-election review does not take adequate responsibility for the City’s failure to ensure that residents could exercise their right to vote. Her review is based on City Manager Paul Mochrie’s Jan. 15 report to City Council, which tries to gloss over the City’s failure to conduct the by-election properly. Long wait times were easily preventable. But Mochrie erroneously frames the high wait times as inevitable.
“There is no question that this by-election was poorly planned and discouraged thousands of Vancouver voters from exercising their democratic rights,” says former TEAM City Councillor Colleen Hardwick.
Kroeker’s analysis shows City staff didn’t consider the voting patterns of previous by-elections, and ignored census and electoral data. They instead recommended that voting places be located only in community centres.
By making voting more difficult in some neighbourhoods, the City systematically disempowered residents in a discriminatory manner. Voter turnout was on average 87% higher than in 2017 at voting places where there were no lineups or only small ones. The selective use of turnout data in Mochrie’s report is a cause for concern.
Leckovic’s review will be presented to Council on May 20. TEAM urges councillors to prevent voter suppression in the 2026 civic election by taking the five following steps:
Perform a full performance audit of the 2025 by-election budget
Have City Management Staff complete an educational course on election planning principles with Elections BC
Commit to using precedent in the future when planning elections
Commit to making voting equally accessible regardless of where voters live
Consult with Elections BC and election planning experts while drafting future reports to Council on elections
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