Storm causes power outages at some polling stations across B.C.

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The polls are open in B.C. and voters are casting ballots, but heavy rain caused polling stations in Langley and Kamloops to face disruptions.

Elections BC tells CTV News manual backup procedures had to implemented at polling stations in Langley due to power outages Saturday morning, but those stations have since gone back to normal. Mayne, Hornby and Denman islands were also impacted.

Any paper ballots cast during an outage are fed into the electronic tabulators once the power comes back on.

Andrew Watson, communications director with Elections BC, says despite the weather conditions, polling stations have seen a steady turnout.

“It’s important to note that you can vote at any voting place in the province, so (that’s helpful to) any voters who might be impacted by the weather.”

It comes after more than a million people already voted in advance polls across the province.

Elections BC says it hopes to report the majority of the results within an hour of polls closing at 8 p.m. due to electronic voting tabulators being used for the first time in a provincial general election.

“(It’s) much quicker than starting by opening up a ballot box on election night and manually counting potentially thousands of ballots,” explains Watson.

He says in previous provincial elections, vote-counting could take hours.

Elsbeth Ingram has been voting in B.C. since the 1960s and says the rain didn’t impact her casting her ballot.

“I’ve lived here 60 years and I haven’t missed one,” Ingram said. “It wasn’t going to put me off. I decided that however I get here, I will get here.”

She says her focus this year is on seniors’ issues.

“Up to now, they’ve always had a car ride system if you need help getting here. This year, nothing. But anyways, I got here.”