Sacha has a description of the advance polling stations near his residence in British Columbia: “Once arriving at the election room, you hand the elections BC person your voter registration card. One person makes sure that you are on the list of voters and crosses your name off. Then another person writes your name, address and date on a piece of paper and gets you to sign it. You take this paper and hand it to a third person who gives you two numbered ballots. One of the ballots is for the candidate party you wish to vote for. The other is on the referendum for electoral reform. You walk behind a tall piece of cardboard, and mark an "X" next to your two choices and then fold the ballot. You give the ballot to the elections person and they rip off the numbers from the ballots. Then they give you your ballots back and you can stuff them in the ballot box.”
I had wondered whether there would be two separate ballots for the election, but now Sacha has confirmed that for me. I'd be surprised if STV passed: the opposition to it (the strongest opponents being political parties) has been silent, signalling confidence in its defeat. Regardless, depending on my schedule in the next couple of days—advance polling takes place until this Saturday—I'll try to make the advance poll. I will be voting Yes on STV, the reasoning being that the first-past-the-post system distorts an electorate's preferences, while STV, at least in theory, distorts it less so.
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