Vancouver city council passes motion to list election candidates randomly on ballots

A motion to change Vancouver civic election ballots to list candidates randomly, as opposed to alphabetically, passed in council Wednesday afternoon.

Coun. Andrea Reimer put forward the motion, which proposes that candidates be listed in random order on the official ballots for the 2018 Vancouver municipal election.

Candidates are currently listed alphabetically, which Reimer said can have a bias against candidates with last names that are Chinese, South Asian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese or Latino, among others.

She claims the bias can be more pronounced with long ballots (there were 49 candidates in the 2014 municipal election) and it's a concern she has heard from people who have thought about running for municipal office.

"It kinda breaks my heart when I'm talking to somebody who would be a fantastic elected representative, but for the fact that they feel that their name is too far down the ballot ... they don't even bother running," she said.

Motion amended for staff to study changes

According to Reimer, the section of the Vancouver Charter dealing with how ballots are ordered is 'extraordinarily specific' about the process.

"It gives us two options," she said. "Alphabet, which is the one that I feel has too strong a bias, or random draw."

The motion passed after amendments were suggested by Coun. George Affleck.

Affleck says the amendments included giving city staff more time to look into how the changes might be implemented, as well as any possible budget concerns.

Reimer said she hopes the changes can be made before the 2018 Vancouver election.

"Essentially what staff will be studying is what it takes to obtain a sheet of paper, write names on it, put those names into a hat, and draw them out and type them onto a ballot," she said.