To: 165 reporters and commentators; plus 174 folks who are generally interested in good governance including members of the Social Mavrik Federation .

From: Bob Bray, President, Social Mavrik Federation

Disclaimer: If you want your email address removed from my list, please reply to this email with "No more" in the subject line.

This copy of my 2nd message about the One Day Voting Initiative Petition

is sent to the email inbox of:

CAMPBELL RIVER: Bob Bray announces that petition is titled correctly as "Change Voting Opportunities" rather than practically as "Restore One Day Voting".

The Public Notice ad below, framed in red, was published in the Vancouver Sun on Saturday, June 12, 2021.

Publishing a Public Notice marks the beginning of the 5-month Initiative Petition period with 2 months of canvasser recruiting followed by 3 months of signature gathering.

British Columbia's unique Recall and Initiative Act gives considerable authority to a successful Initiative Petition. As a result, for each Initiative Petition approved by Elections BC its proposed legislation must be properly written.

Properly written legislation has technical standards for wording and clarity.

Once the proposed legislation is judged to meet the technical standards the next step is creating a title. The title of the petition is created with reference to the wording in the proposed legislation.

The title that arises from the proposed legislation may not be as fully self-explanatory as the proponent imagined.

That is the case with the title of my petition, as I discuss below, in the sections following the photo of the ad and the display of the petition title.

Click here to see a larger version of the Public Notice above.

The words in the petition title "Change Voting Opportunities" were not my first choice when I applied for approval of this Initiative Petition.

This title however accurately reflects the wording in the petition's approved legislation.

My first choice for the title was "Restore One Day Voting".

This wording related to the draft Bill I submitted with my application for this petition. The draft Bill was reviewed by Elections BC and found to "not meet the requirements of section 3(4) of the Recall and Initiative Act". The Act requires the Bill to be written in a clear and unambiguous manner.

To meet the requirements I was advised by Elections BC to revise the wording and remove the preamble. Amendments would be considered but needed to be submitted within the month and half remaining in the application period.

The technical issue revolved around repealing the articles in the Election Act about vote by mail and advance voting. Terminology used in the Election Act for "vote by mail" is "alternative absentee voting". The wording changes to repeal "alternative absentee voting" while retaining "absentee voting" were technically challenging.

I submitted amended wording with a view to the technical requirements of good legislation and without a preamble. This more technical wording gained approved as the draft Bill part of the petition. The words "one day voting" did not appear in the amendment and as a result could not be used in the title.

One of the statements in the discarded preamble touched on several points that I will discuss in future announcements. It stated "Whereas civic cohesiveness is enhanced by having voters throughout British Columbia turn out on a single day to choose their Member of the Legislative Assembly in the simplest way possible."

The title wording matter is highlighted in the info-graphic below.

The name of this legislative petition is: Initiative to change the voting opportunities in provincial elections.

Its Elections BC Code is: IP-2021-001

Its description is:

The above description can also be seen on the Social Mavrik website.

It is posted on the Current Initiative page of the Elections BC website along with their Public Notice which can be seen here as a PDF document.

Becoming a canvasser is one way to learn about the direct democracy process provided by British Columbia's Recall and Initiative Act. The initiative petition process is unique to B.C. – no other province or territory in Canada has initiative legislation.

A canvasser will see his or her name on two lists, one public and one private.

The public list is maintained on the Elections BC website.

The private list is maintained on the Social Mavrik website. It shows each canvasser's optionally provided personal information (age, number if any of children and grandchildren, and without any contact details). It is password protected and viewable only by other single, married or previously married canvassers. It's privacy feature can be checked out here.

If you are thinking of registering as a canvasser, of course there is an Elections BC application form. When a completed form is approved by the proponent (that's me) it is submitted to Elections BC. An identification card is issued and sent to the proponent who forwards it to the newly registered canvasser. The application form is here. Please send the completed form to this email address.

Canvassers are invited to occasional half-hour group Zoom calls hosted by me for training and strategizing plus question and answer conversations.

You are welcome to forward this email message but it is better if you click on the link below, copy the URL that appears and paste the URL into your email message.

If you forward this email message using the "forward" button in your email program the forwarded message remains linked to your email address. If your chosen recipient unsubscribes, it is your email address that is unsubscribed from my distribution list.

Bob Bray, President, Social Mavrik Federation

Phone: 250-504-0052

Mail: 784 Bowen Drive, Campbell River, British Columbia V9H 1S2

Email: bob.bray@socialmavrikbc.ca

Website: socialmavrikbc.ca

I have posted the image below on facebook.com/bob.bray.334

and on mewe.com/i/bobbray1.

Click here to see a larger version of the above image.

Click here to see a larger version of the above image.