Thursday October 24, 2024 | VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Elections BC is still working hard to produce a final count of the ballots that were cast in the October 19, 2024 43rd BC provincial election.
Results were so close on election night — between two parties and in two ridings — that it remains unclear which party will form government:
- BC NDP got 46 seats, with 45 seats achieved by the BC Conservatives, and two seats by the BC Greens. A majority government would require 47 seats. Even as results are still not final, the BC NDP have approached the BC Greens about possibly establishing a way to create a Green-supported NDP minority government (by coalition or Supply and Confidence Agreement or similar mechanism).
- The voting results for the top two candidates in Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre was less than 100 votes in each of those ridings; that has triggered an automatic recount (which gets done somewhere within the riding). The initial count had the BC NDP candidates in the lead in both those ridings, but if that flips it would mean the BC Conservatives end up with 47 elected MLAs and the BC NDP only 44.
The final count process for BC’s provincial election is scheduled to begin on Saturday October 26 and will conclude on Monday October 28.
In preparation for that final count, election officials have been screening absentee and mail-in ballots that were received up until 8 p.m Pacific Time on election night Saturday October 19. Those ballots must be screened to ensure that the voter was eligible to vote and did not vote previously, says Elections BC.
The day after the election, on Sunday October 20, Elections BC estimated that approximately 49,000 ballots would be counted as part of final count. That estimate is now up to about 65,000 ballots that will be counted as part of final count.
Elections BC will provide a breakdown of the number of ballots left to count by district by tomorrow, Friday October 25.
“District electoral officers do understand that recounts may be required as part of their role,” says Andrew Watson, Senior Director, Communications, Elections BC. “They can also hire additional temporary election officials to help them with the recounts,” says Watson.
Summary of Final Count Timing
(As provided by Elections BC on October 24, 2024)
| Saturday, October 26 | Mail-in ballot count begins, starting with closest districts Results updated on Elections BC’s website at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. |
| Sunday, October 27 | Mail-in ballot count continues Results updated on Elections BC’s website at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and when mail-in ballot count completes Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre recounts begin at 1 p.m. Results updated on Elections BC’s website when Surrey City Centre recount complete |
| Monday, October 28 | Final count of absentee ballots in all electoral districts Results updated on Elections BC’s website hourly starting at 9 a.m. Results updated when Juan de Fuca-Malahat recount completes |
Recounts
On October 20 Elections BC confirmed automatic recounts will take place in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat (JFM) and Surrey City Centre (SRC) electoral districts. These recounts are required because the difference between the top two candidates in those districts is 100 votes or fewer.
Under the Election Act, candidates or their official agents can also request a recount of some or all of the ballots considered at initial count within three days after Final Voting Day. The deadline to request a recount was October 22.
Under the Election Act, these recount requests are accepted if there is evidence that:
- votes were not correctly accepted or ballots were not correctly rejected,
- a ballot account does not accurately record the number of votes for a candidate, or
- the results of the quality assurance process indicate that vote-counting equipment did not process ballots accurately.
The recount requests below were received by the October 22 deadline. The recount requests in Courtenay-Comox, Maple Ridge East, Oak Bay-Gordon Head, and Surrey-Guildford did not meet the requirements aboveand were declined.
In Kelowna Centre (KEC), a transcription error of 1 vote was identified between a ballot account and a tabulator results tape. This discrepancy is likely due to election official error. A ballot account is a form completed by election officials showing the number of ballots issued and the votes for each candidate, based on the tabulator results tape. 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.
| Electoral District | Candidate who made the request | Recount request accepted? |
| Courtenay-Comox | Ronna-Rae Leonard | No |
| Kelowna Centre | Loyal Woolridge | Yes – partial recount |
| Maple Ridge East | Bob D’Eith | No |
| Oak Bay-Gordon Head | Lisa Gunderson | No |
| Surrey-Guildford | Garry Begg | No |
Final count
The final count involves three distinct processes: counting mail-in ballots, counting absentee ballots, and recounts of ballots counted on election night. The final count process will proceed as follows between October 26 and 28.
Saturday, October 26
Counting of mail-in ballots received after the close of advance voting will begin the morning of Saturday, October 26. Mail-in ballots received before the close of advance voting were counted on October 19.
The deadline to return mail-in ballots to Elections BC was 8 p.m. Pacific time on October 19. Mail-in ballots considered by this count could be returned by mail or at Service BC location. As part of preparations for final count this week, these ballots have been sent to an Elections BC counting facility in Victoria. Counting these ballots involves several steps.
Mail-in ballots are returned to Elections BC in a certification envelope and secrecy sleeve. The certification envelope includes the voter’s information. This information is cross referenced against the voters list to ensure the voter was eligible to vote and did not vote previously. If the certification envelope passes screening, it is opened and the ballot (contained in the secrecy sleeve) is separated from the certification envelope in a way that preserves the secrecy of the vote. If the ballot is a write-in ballot, the voter’s vote is transcribed onto an ordinary ballot so that it can be read by an electronic tabulator. The paper ballot is then counted by a tabulator.
In preparation for this stage of the process, election officials are sorting certification envelopes by electoral district. Electoral districts will be counted one at a time, ordered by the closeness of the race. Elections BC will not finish counting mail-in ballots on October 26 but will update election results on its website at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. A notification will be posted on Elections BC’s social media channels when results are updated.
Sunday, October 27
The mail-in ballot count in Victoria will continue on Sunday, October 27. Elections BC anticipates this count will be complete late in the day on October 27. Voting results will be updated on Elections BC’s website at 1 p.m., 4 p.m., and when the mail-in ballot count is complete.
The recounts in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, Surrey City Centre, and Kelowna Centre will begin at 1 p.m. on October 27. These are recounts of the ballots for these districts that were counted on election night, and in Kelowna Centre’s case is a partial recount (see above).
During preparations for final count, ballots for JFM and SRC cast in other parts of the province are being sent back to JFM and SRC (voters can vote anywhere in a BC provincial election). The recounts taking place in JFM and SRC will therefore include all ballots cast by voters in these districts in the election, and counts will be conducted by hand, per the requirements of the Election Act.
The partial recount in KEC will be limited to the ballots counted by that tabulator.
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. When a recount is complete, Elections BC’s website and social media channels will be updated.
Monday, October 28
On Monday, October 28 every electoral district across the province will conduct the final count process for any remaining absentee ballots. The number of ballots counted in each district during this part of the process will be small (approximately 1% of total votes cast). There are a number of different types of ballots counted at this stage, including mail-in voting packages dropped off at district voting places and DEO offices, special ballots (such as ballots cast by voters in hospital) and absentee ballots cast at voting places that did not use technology to administer voting.
These counts also involve several steps. Like mail-in ballots, absentee ballots are in a certification envelope and secrecy sleeve, and need to be separated in a way that preserves the secrecy of the vote.
Counting on October 28 will begin at 9 a.m. Voting results on Elections BC’s website will be updated every hour. Districts that have finished reporting results will be shown on Elections BC’s website. Because of B.C.’s vote anywhere model, electoral districts are counting results for multiple electoral districts. This means that voting results will not be finalized until every district has finished counting.
Elections BC’s website and social media channels will be updated once the final count process is complete.