65,000 absentee ballots to be counted before B.C. has election results

The non-partisan office of the legislature says approximately 16,000 more absentee and mail-in ballots than expected will be part of the final count.

“As the screening process is nearing completion, we now estimate that approximately 65,000 ballots will be counted,” Elections BC said.

The new total averages out to around 700 votes per riding. Hamish Telford, a political science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, says that’s probably enough to be negligible to the current count.

“I had to hazard a guess — and it’s purely a guess– then they will vote pretty much the same way everyone else voted, within a few points,” said Telford.

“Once you start getting up to 700 people per riding, or 1000 people per riding, in some cases, that’s almost a large enough sample to be representative of the community.”

The final count will conclude Monday, Oct. 28, but before then, Elections BC says at least three recounts are required.

In the Juan de Fuca-Malahat (JFM) riding on Vancouver Island, BC NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse has beat out BC Conservatives candidate Marina Sapozhnikov by just 20 votes, according to the current count.

In the Surrey City Centre (SRC) riding, BC NDP candidate Amna Shah leads with 95 votes over BC Conservatives candidate Zeeshan Wahla.

On Thursday, Elections BC announced that another partial recount for the Kelowna Centre (KEC) riding is needed after a discrepancy was discovered.

Elections BC says a ballot account and tabulator results tape discovered a transcription error of just one vote.

“While the tabulator in question passed all testing and produced results accurately, a recount of the ballots counted by that tabulator will be conducted as a result of the ballot account error. This recount will be conducted by hand.”

The recounts in JFM, SRC, and KEC will begin at 1 p.m. on Oct. 27, Elections BC says. Those will be recounts of the ballots for the districts that were counted on election night — and in Kelowna Centre’s case, a partial recount.

“Based on the number of ballots to count, we estimate that the SRC recount and KEC partial recount will be complete by the end of the day on October 27. The recount in JFM will not be complete until October 28.”

Four more recounts were requested by candidates, including by BC NDP MLA Gary Begg in Surrey-Guildford, who appears to have lost by a difference of 102 votes. But Elections BC says those requests didn’t meet the requirements and were rejected.

Telford says the candidates still have the option to make a judicial appeal for a recount. Elections BC says judicial recounts are approved based on certain criteria, like evidence that votes were accepted or rejected improperly.

“If anyone is within a 103 vote margin difference, that seems a pretty close threshold. I think a judge might be inclined to issue a warrant for a recount in that case. In other cases, perhaps, perhaps not. Fair enough,” said Telford.

Elections BC says an automatic judicial recount is triggered if the difference between the top two candidates is less than one five-hundredth of the total ballots considered in that district.

But meeting that threshold is pretty unlikely. In Begg’s riding, for instance, one five-hundredth of the current total ballots is roughly 37 votes.

The final count, Elections BC says, will be broken into three distinct processes: counting mail-in ballots, counting absentee ballots, and recounts of ballots counted on election night. That process will take place between Oct. 26 and 28. 

By current count, the BC NDP holds 46 seats, the BC Conservatives hold 45, and the BC Green Party holds two.

Looking for the latest coverage on Saturday’s B.C. election? CityNews has everything you need to know. You can watch CityNews 24/7 live or listen live to 1130 NewsRadio Vancouver to keep up to date. You can also subscribe to breaking news alerts.

—With files from Michael Williams