It’s the final countdown, on Oct. 26.
Until then, it’s a waiting game with results from at least two ridings hanging in the balance and possibly determining whether the NDP or the Conservative Party of B.C. govern the province.
According to Elections BC, even though the initial count from Oct. 19 election night is finished, candidates cannot be declared officially elected until the final count has been completed, a process which runs from Oct. 26 to 28.
Ballots counted on election day, during the initial count, include advance ballots, ballots cast on voting day and mail-in ballots received before the closure of advanced voting.
Most of the ballots in the final count will include mail-in ballots that arrived after the close of advance voting and up until 8 p.m. on election night, as well as ballots from outside a voter’s district made at a voting station with manual counting.
Elections BC says that a rough estimate is that 49,000 mail-in ballots will be considered in the final count.
The final count process also involves further quality-assurance checks from the initial count from voting day.
Voting results will be updated this week to correct any transcription errors.
For ridings where the top two contenders had less than a 100-vote differential, a recount will automatically take place. That will happen in Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre ridings and will take place during the final count.
Following the completion of the initial count of ballots on Oct. 19 to 20, at total of 2,037,897 ballots had been cast, the most ever in a B.C. election, and producing a voter turnout rate of 57 percent.
Most votes, 99.72 percent, were counted by early Oct. 20. Some results were delayed because officials double check that results are reported accurately before confirming a number, said an Oct. 20 news release from Elections BC.
With the federal inquiry into foreign interference continuing its hearings in Ottawa, Elections BC said it’s participating in an Election Integrity Working Group composed of provincial and federal partners to address any threats to the electoral process.
“While we haven’t seen any specific instances of foreign interference in a B.C. provincial election, the risk is real and is a concern for us,” said Melanie Hull, with Elections BC.
The Election Integrity Working Group shares information at a non-classified level so that the responsible agency can address any emerging threats to the electoral process, she added.
While non-citizens can become election officials, all must be legally entitled to work in B.C.
“Election officials take an oath to perform their duties in an impartial and non-partisan way and must not act in a way that could cause their impartiality to be called into question,” Hull said.
