Time running out to get HST referendum ballots in

by Dave Preston

Time is running out if you haven’t sent in your ballot for the HST referendum.

Ballot packages must be received by Elections BC by 4:30 p.m. next Friday, August 5.

Elections BC notes on its website that no stamp is required on the ballot envelope. All anyone need do is drop the envelope in a mailbox. But doing so now comes with a risk… If the ballot is not received by Elections BC on time, it won’t be counted.

The post marked date on the envelope doesn’t count. What does count is when the ballot is received.

There is an alternative for Okanagan residents to submit their ballots. Packages can be dropped off at any Service BC Centre in the province. Those packages also must be dropped off by 4:30 p.m., Friday, August 5.

Unfortunately for Central Okanagan residents, there are only two Service BC Centres in the Okanagan: Vernon and Penticton.

The referendum asks voters whether to keep the existing HST or go back to former PST/GST system.