Elections BC to conduct internal review after missed ballot box; premier proposes all-party committee review

Elections BC announced Tuesday that it will conduct an internal investigation following the discovery of an uncounted ballot box.

Speaking to media Tuesday morning, the province’s chief electoral officer, Anton Boegman, says the investigation comes after 861 uncounted votes were found during a province-wide review in the Prince George-Mackenzie riding.

“When the election officials were re-tabulating the ballot box, they only included the ballots from the second day of advance voting, from the day that the issue had occurred,” Boegman explained. 

“They should have also included the ballots that were in the sealed ballot box in the district office. But they did not, and that was an error of that team in that district,” he added.

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The review was ordered by Elections BC after some mistakes were found during preparations for the upcoming judicial recounts in Kelowna Centre and Surrey-Guildford. That review found that a few out-of-district votes were not properly recorded due to human error.

“Our elections rely on the work of over 17,000 election officials from communities across the province. Unfortunately, unintentional human errors do occur in administering the vote,” said Boegman in a statement Monday.

“The use of Chief Electoral Officer Orders and the judicial recount process enables such errors to be corrected. These steps are critical to ensure all votes are accurately counted and reported prior to the end of the election period.”

On Tuesday, Boegman stressed that while none of the errors are enough to change the final result, a judicial recount has been approved. By current count, BC Conservative Party candidate Kiel Giddens won by 5,742 votes in the Prince George-Mackenzie riding.

Boegman said the investigation began immediately and the report will be fully documented for the Legislature.

A Professor Emeritus of political science at UBC Richard Johnston says he’s not surprised there was some degree of human error in counting ballots considering the scale and complexity of the election.

“I’m not terribly surprised that this has happened, and I think the sanest interpretation of Election BC’s response is that they’ve owned up to it. They’re going to investigate it. I think it’s actually perfectly appropriate that they do an internal investigation,” he said.

He said it was fortunate that this didn’t happen in one of the closest ridings.

The professor says he thinks because of this there will now be an increase in “online chatter” on social media. He says the trolling will likely increase in what he calls the “mistrustful fringe of the electorate.”

“I think most people most of the time are unaffected by it, they recognize the complexities of modern life, but that’s not everybody.”

“In a context in which there are people constantly trolling on social media, and increasingly, social media are not moderated anymore, and so people can say whatever they like, sort of outright libel.” 

BC NDP proposes non-partisan independent review

In a post to social media Monday, BC Conservatives Leader John Rustad says he’s calling for an “independent review,” adding that he is not disputing the results.

When asked about an independent review, Boegman reemphasized that all errors were human-caused, in only a few districts out of 93.

“However, if legislators do decide that an independent review of what occurred is required, Elections BC will, of course, fully participate in that process.”

“There may have been other contributing factors, including the extreme weather conditions on Election Day. It was also the first provincial election that was administered. Following the significant changes to the electoral legislation that were made in 2019,” he explained.

On Tuesday afternoon, Premier David Eby issued a statement saying his government also supports the idea of an independent review of the electoral system.

Eby says the BC NDP is proposing an all-party committee to examine the steps taken by Elections BC, hear from experts, and recommend improvements for future elections.

“British Columbians need to be assured that strong safeguards are in place to catch these issues and ensure every vote is counted accurately. I remain confident in the outcome of the election. At the same time, it’s clear we need to review the processes, technologies and systems used to tally votes accurately and support public confidence,” said Eby.

He says he looks forward to working with all MLAs to uphold free and fair elections.