BC Liberals say steps have been taken to ensure fairness in 2018 leadership vote

Now that the final leadership debate is done, the BC Liberal Party is focused on the vote to determine the winner.

“We are extremely confident in the measures we’ve put in place to make sure the memberships are verified,” said Executive Director Emile Scheffel, adding they’ve learned lessons from the last time around.

The party faced stern criticism over members not getting personal identification numbers (PINs) in time to vote in 2011, and there were also allegations that PINs were being improperly used.

“It is certainly going to be significantly more difficult than it was in 2011 for someone to be able to vote on somebody else’s behalf.”

Scheffel said this time around there are additional measures to ensure the voting process is fair.

He says once a member is verified they have to register to vote.

“Once individuals are registered they get a verification code that they’ll then have to use to get their voting credential, or what’s also called a PIN, before they go and vote. So a couple additional layers of verification that just give us some additional assurance that all those memberships are above board.”

This time members can vote via phone or online from Feb. 1 to 3.

With ranked ballots it could take a few rounds for one candidate to get the 50 per cent needed to win.