Elections BC said Monday, 16 days after voting day, that a ballot box in the Prince George-Mackenzie riding went uncounted and has thus prompted a judicial recount application by Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman.
Furthermore, 14 unreported votes have been added to a judicial recount in Surrey, following a review of final counts.
Elections BC typically takes over two weeks to end its final count but thanks to new electronic tabulators it took far less time.
In the weeks following each election, Elections BC conducts further reviews of its counting process and reports errors to the public.
Glacier Media has reviewed Elections BC reports dating back to 2001 and while each report outlines all of the human errors — typically concerning single ballots being mishandled — an uncounted ballot box appears to be a first.
The box in Prince George holds “approximately 861 votes, seven of which were out-of-district ballots,” according to a Nov.4 Elections BC statement.
The box will now go before scrutineers from each party for a count and then, if the application is approved, a judge will conduct a judicial recount. (Only the one box, not the entire riding.)
Elections BC says the judicial recount of the box is nevertheless of no immediate consequence, as BC Conservative candidate Sheldon Clare defeated runner-up Coralee Oakes 11,425 votes to 4,392 votes.
Two full judicial recounts will occur with party officials and a judge
Full judicial recounts will be happening in Kelowna Centre and Surrey-Guildford.
Judicial recounts happen when the difference between the first and second place candidates is 1/500th of the total vote count.
In Kelowna Centre, BC Conservative Kristina Loewen defeated NDP Loyal Wooldridge 11,031 to 10,993, or by 38 votes.
In Surrey-Guildford, NDP Gary Begg defeated BC Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa 8,938 to 8,911, or by 27 votes.
These ridings went through an initial count where every tabulator, which is not connected to the internet, at every polling station released a printed results tape. Scrutineers sign off on the tape and the result is called in by the polling station supervisor to the district electoral office. The central office collects those results and inputs them on Elections BC’s “Voting Results System (VRS),” a proprietary system developed by Elections BC.
Recounts then took place and those ridings with differences of 1/500 now proceed to a judicial recount.
On Monday, Elections BC stated a review of its recounts found 11 tabulator tapes for out-of-district results had not been reported in six districts, including in Surrey-Guildford.
“Election officials used data from Elections BC’s Electoral Information System to identify the location of the ballots and other election materials that needed to be shipped. During this process, an anomaly in the data for SRG was discovered. Upon investigation we determined that an election official data entry mistake had resulted in 14 votes for SRG not being reported,” the organization stated.
“On Friday November 1 we disclosed this information to the Justices and parties involved in the judicial recounts and advised that we were continuing our review to ensure that any additional omissions were identified,” said Boegman.
During a judicial recount, each candidate may be present before a justice of the Supreme Court of B.C. and in the presence of every sealed ballot box.
The judge will consider any objections of ballots made by party scrutineers during counting proceedings.
According to law, both sides at the judicial recount my come to an agreement that not every vote is reviewed: "If consented to by the individual who made the application for the recount, the district electoral officer and the candidates present at the recount, the court may limit the ballots and envelopes to be considered on the recount from those for which the recount was requested."
Four judicial recounts since 2001 have produced only 19 vote changes out of 98,822 ballots recounted by a judge
As it stands, the BC NDP has held on to a slim majority, having all but officially won 47 seats to the 44 BC Conservative seats and two BC Green Party seats.
A swing in Surrey-Guildford upon judicial recount would have significant consequences as it would move the BC NDP out of a majority position.
So why is Premier David Eby preparing to form government if these judicial recounts have yet to occur?
Boegman told Glacier Media judicial recounts tend to reflect the final recount and when there is a change to the count, it has yet to produce a change in the overall outcome.
An examination of judicial recounts since 2001 shows how the recounts have been immensely accurate. In fact, three of four judicial recounts realized no change to the respective count at all.
On June 6 and 7, 2005, Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm conducted a judicial recount in Vancouver-Burrard where 28,679 people cast a vote. No changes were reported and Dohm certified the election of BC Liberal Lorne Mayencourt with 12,009 votes while BC NDP Tim Stevenson received 11,998 votes — the closest judicial recount since 2001.
In 2009, another judicial recount resulted in no changes to the final count.
In Delta South, the separation between the leading candidates was 32 votes, less than 1/500 (47 votes) of the 23,477 ballots considered.
Madame Justice Catherine Wedge conducted the judicial recount, affirming independent Vicki Huntington defeated BC Liberal Wally Oppal.
In both of the cases, in 2005 and 2009, the second-place candidates Oppal and Stevenson actually held leads after the initial count — an indication Elections BC recounts tend to finalize results.
In 2013, BC NDP Selina Robinson won in Coquitlam-Maillardville, where the separation between the leading candidates was 35 votes, less than 1/500ths of the 21,897 ballots considered. Justice Barry M. Davies also upheld the results of final count.
No judicial recounts were required in 2017.
The 2020 election is the only time since at least 2021 that a judicial recount resulted in a change to the vote count. This occurred when Justice David A. Crerar conducted a judicial recount of West Vancouver-Sea to Sky after BC Liberal Jordan Sturdy won by 41 votes from 24,769 ballots considered. Crerar found Sturdy actually won by 60 votes.
The writ of election for this district was returned on Nov. 20, 2020, marking the end of the election period for the Oct. 24, 2020 election, the report noted.
