The winner of the 2024 provincial election in British Columbia will not be known for at least another three days, with two recounts and a tally of mail-in ballots due to take place later this week.
Preliminary tallies for the Oct. 19 provincial election show the BC NDP is leading or elected with 46 seats, the BC Conservatives with 45 seats, and the BC Green Party has been elected with two seats. In the BC Legislature, 47 seats are needed to form a majority government.
However, the counting of these seats cannot be completed until the final count is carried out between 26 and 28 October. As of Wednesday afternoon, CBC News had not projected a winner for 11 seats, with the NDP leading in six of those seats and the Conservatives. in five.
Here’s what you need to know about the delay in election results in BC.
When will we know the winner?
Under the BC Elections Act, the final count of all ballots must take place on a date determined by the chief provincial election officer, which is at least four days after the final voting day.
In the case of the 2024 election, final counting is scheduled to begin October 26 and continues through October 28.
What is included in the final calculation?
The final tally will include mail-in ballots and out-of-district votes sent to Elections BC after the close of advance polls. It will also include manual recounts for two races, where the margin of victory was deemed too tight.
Elections BC said its operations team will provide more details on the recount later this week. CBC News will project the winner once results are finalized later this week.
With the winner of BC’s election yet to be determined, political scientist Hamish Telford explains what will happen next, and says it’s possible the NDP is seeking a partnership with the Green Party like they did after the 2017 election.
How many mail-in ballots will be counted?
Provincial election authorities have received about 49,000 mail-in and absentee ballots to be counted this weekend.
Which race results will be told?
The two places that will undergo a recount are Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where the NDP is ahead by 20 votes, and Surrey City Centre, where the NDP is ahead by 95 votes.
Any district where the margin of victory is 100 votes or less will be subject to an automatic recount. The parties may also request a recount in the near future.
Elections BC said the recount must be done by hand, and not by tabulators, as per the law.
Why the delay? Why can’t we start counting now?
Elections BC said the timing of the final count is determined by the Elections Act, and a number of factors influence why it can take a while to know the election results.
BC has a “vote anywhere” model, where voters registered at one polling place can cast their ballot at a different polling place. Elections BC said counting a “large” number of votes took longer on election night.
“Because BC has a vote-anywhere model, we need to send any ballots for candidates in Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Center that were cast in other districts to those two constituencies to conduct a recount,” Elections BC said in a statement .
“This process must be completed accurately and safely, and this takes time.”
Are votes counted by hand?
Elections BC said that the majority of votes cast in this election were counted by electronic tabulators, and only a small number of mail-in ballots at certain polling stations were counted by hand.
While the recount will be counted manually, most mail-in ballots will be counted using tabulators.
Could we see a judicial recount?
A judicial recount, conducted manually by a BC Supreme Court judge, can be requested by a candidate in an election whose total margin of victory is less than 1/500 of the total number of ballots cast.
This year, requests for a judicial recount must be made within six days of the final count – which it will do November 4.
If granted, the recount would have to take place between seven and 15 days after the final tally results are announced, Elections BC said.
After initial counting, the BC NDP was leading or elected with 46 seats, the Conservatives with 45 seats, and the Green Party with two seats. CBC’s Maurice Katz breaks down the numbers and tells us what to expect.
