By now most people who are eligible to vote will have received their Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) ballots in the mail.
I have to admit, I had to laugh when I read the instructions .... why are there so many envelopes?
Inside the voting package envelope, contained three more envelopes ... secrecy envelope A, certification envelope B and ballot package envelope C. Perhaps just a little overkill on the envelopes?
In speaking with a number of local residents recently, they too were more than a little baffled so I contacted Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad.
He said that the government is only responsible for setting the date and the fact that it was to be a mail in ballot, but that Elections B.C. are responsible for the package鈥檚 structure and design. He said he feels the envelope system is a silly process that seems redundant, but there is in fact some method to the madness.
The first envelope keeps the vote secure and secret, the second identifies the voter just as you would identify yourself at a polling station and prevents people from sending in multiple votes and the third is of course, to post in the vote.
Another thing that I noticed to be a little odd is the wording of the referendum question.
It should be a relatively simple question.
For example, if the question was, 鈥楧o you want to keep the HST and do away with the provincial sales tax (PST) and the goods and services tax (GST)? It would require a simple ... yes vote to keep the HST or a no vote to get rid of it.
But the wording on the referendum is, 鈥楢re you in favour of extinguishing the HST and reinstating the PST in conjunction with the GST ... and this requires a yes vote to 鈥榚xtinguish鈥� the HST or a no vote to keep it. Just seems kind of a backward way to ask and I feel it is worded in a way that could easily be misconstrued by voters.
Something else that was pointed out to me last week by an astute local resident. Inside the HST referendum voting package comes a set of printed instructions.
The instructions state, voters should be aware that it is an offense under the Election Act and HST referendum to persuade or compel someone to vote, [tell someone] how they should vote, or to prevent others from voting. Isn鈥檛 it the goal of many of the government鈥檚 HST advertisements to persuade people to vote for the HST?
Are they not compelling people to vote? Are they not trying to persuade you to vote for the HST? It seems like a case of do as I say, but don鈥檛 do as I do ......
I think the local resident made a great point. Are the government committing an offense under the Elections Act when they campaign for your vote for the HST?
The penalty for this is punishable by a fine of $20,000 and or imprisonment for not longer than two years so I wonder how many pro HST advertisements ran?
The government鈥檚 reduction of the HST to 10 per cent seems to be a better deal that returning to the PST and HST, which combined total 12 per cent. It will certainly be interesting to see the election results.
Ballots must be received by Elections B.C., a Service B.C. centre or an Elections B.C. collection centre before 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5, 2011.
