As of the time of writing, eligible residents across British Columbia still have just under two hours to vote in their community’s 2026 civic election, with polling stations scheduled to close at 8 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 17.
For the City of Vancouver’s civic election, in addition to selecting the municipal representatives of a mayor, city councillors, Park Board commissioners, and School Board trustees, voters will also be completing a second form specifically for the non-binding public safety plebiscite.
There are two questions in that public safety plebiscite, with the City asking voters whether they support enabling greater enforcement against public hard drug use, and creating a secure medical treatment facility for people with severe mental health and addiction issues.
The preliminary results on who will fill the positions in municipal government will begin to populate shortly after 8 p.m. when polls close.
However, the results for the plebiscite will not be known for a few more days — Wednesday, Oct. 21. That is the same day the official election results will be released.
At the polling stations during the advance voting period and today’s general voting, voters inserted their completed candidates’ ballot form into a tabulator machine, while the completed plebiscite form was dropped into a cardboard box. The candidates’ ballot form will be counted tonight, but the plebiscite ballot form will be scanned and counted over the coming days instead.
Daily Hive Urbanized will have full coverage of Metro Vancouver’s civic election results tonight.
The City of Vancouver’s preliminary figures showed more than 103,000 voters during the four days of advance voting, up by approximately 60 per cent from roughly 65,000 during the 2022 civic election’s advance voting period. That record increase came despite having four advance voting days this year, compared with five in the previous election. But Vancouver also nearly tripled the number of advance voting locations — from 22 polling stations in 2022 to 59 in 2026.
The public safety plebiscite could be another major factor in this year’s turnout.
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