 Welcome to the second in a series of four presentations to help prospective candidates learn more about BC general local elections. Who are the participants in BC local elections? This presentation will introduce you to some of the roles and organizations involved in local elections, including electors and candidates, candidate representatives, electoral organizations, and third party sponsors. The participants most people are familiar with are electors or the people voting in an election, and candidates, the people running for local office. In BC local elections, there are two kinds of electors. Let's learn more about these roles. Resident electors live in the jurisdiction and must be at least 18 years of age on general voting day, be Canadian citizens, have resided in BC for at least six months before registering to vote, and not be disqualified. Non-resident property electors must meet the same qualifications as resident electors, except instead of living in the jurisdiction, they must have owned property in the jurisdiction for at least 30 days before registering to vote. Just like electors, there are certain qualifications a candidate must meet. In addition to these legislative requirements, there are a number of considerations for potential candidates to keep in mind. To help with these considerations, there are resources available at www.gov.bc.ca.localelections. Now that you've learned about the two main participants, let's talk about the other potential participants in a local election. Once a candidate commits to run for office, they can decide if they want to appoint candidate representatives. Most importantly, candidates must have a financial agent. A candidate is their own financial agent unless they appoint another individual to the position. The appointment must be signed and submitted to the local chief election officer before the nomination period ends. Go to ElectionBC's website for information about the financial agent's roles and responsibilities. Candidates may appoint an official agent to represent them during the election process. The official agent can act as the campaign manager, a spokesperson, or be the point of contact for people helping with the candidate's election campaign. Appointments must be made in writing and given to the local chief election officer. Candidates may choose to appoint scrutineers to observe voting procedures and ballot counting. Check with the local chief election officer for more details. Candidates may enlist volunteers to help with their campaign. There are limitations to who or what is considered volunteering. For example, a volunteer that works on a candidate's campaign must not receive any payment or remuneration for their services. Now let's learn about another participant, elector organizations, which are regulated under the Local Government Act and the Local Election Campaign Financing Act. Electoral organizations are generally found in larger municipalities. They endorse candidates in local elections. Electoral organizations file endorsement documents with the local chief election officer in order to have their name or acronym on the ballot beside the candidate they endorse. Electoral organizations must have a membership of at least 50 eligible electors. For more information, check out the resources available online. Third-party sponsors are individuals or organizations that sponsor advertising independently of a candidate or elector organization during the campaign period. Third-party sponsors are not part of the candidate's campaign. Third-party sponsors must register with Elections BC. Refer to Elections BC's guide for local elections third-party sponsors in BC for more details available online. Thank you for taking the time to learn about the participants in BC's local elections. Please view the other presentations in this series and see the other resources that are available on the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing's web pages.