Elections BC begins judicial recounts for 2 of 3 ridings

The BC NDP’s slim majority hangs in the balance Thursday, as judicial recounts begin for two ridings nearly three weeks after the provincial election.

Judges will begin hand-counting ballots in Kelowna-Centre and in Surrey-Guildford, where the BC NDP candidate leads by just 21 votes.

Earlier this week, Elections BC said it had approved an internal investigation after some mistakes were found during preparations for the recounts. Its 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,” the province’s chief electoral officer, Anton Boegman, said 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.”

Another recount was approved in the Prince George-Mackenzie riding where 861 uncounted votes were discovered.

Boegman stressed Tuesday that the error in that riding is not enough to change the final result. By the current count, BC Conservative Party candidate Kiel Giddens won by 5,742 votes.

The judicial recounts in Kelowna and Surrey are scheduled to take place on Thursday and Friday. The Prince George recount will take place Friday. Elections BC says it will report the results once they are complete.

—With files from The Canadian Press