 The Election Act of British Columbia permits the provincial chief electoral officer to " register as voters those individuals who appear to be qualified to register as voters " and to " update current voter registration information " based on the National Register of Electors without the involvement of the individual . Data collected may be used in accordance with the Canada Elections Act . This is possible as a result of changes to the British Columbia Election Act made on 20 May 2004 . Elections BC shares data with Elections Canada every six months . This coordination ensures that federally registered electors are also registered provincially , and vice versa . Because British Columbia has a six @-@ month residency requirement for an individual to become a registered elector , a criterion not required for the national register , the provincial register will filter updates received from the National Register of Electors to exclude individuals that do not meet that criterion . Before synchronisation with the National Register of Electors , the provincial voter list included 71 % of eligible electors ; after the 2005 provincial election in May 2005 , the first to use the synchronised system , it was expected to be 93 % , increasing voter registration from 2 @.@ 11 million to 2 @.@ 82 million electors from 2 @.@ 98 million eligible resident citizens . 
