B.C. election: Final count begins Saturday, will add roughly 66K votes to total, Elections BC says
CTV
The final count of ballots in the 2024 B.C. election begins Saturday, with more than 66,000 mail-in and absentee votes potentially yet to be counted across the province's 93 electoral districts.
The final count of ballots in the 2024 B.C. election begins Saturday, with more than 66,000 mail-in and absentee votes potentially yet to be counted across the province's 93 electoral districts.
Elections BC says even more ballots may still be added to the total outstanding, as some districts have certification envelopes they are still screening to determine whether the ballots inside are valid.
The addition of these 66,000-plus votes has the potential to change the results of the nail-bitingly close election, which saw the initial count conclude last weekend with the B.C. NDP leading in 46 ridings, the B.C. Conservative Party leading in 45 and the B.C. Greens leading in two.
Five ridings finished the initial count with the top two candidates within one percentage point of each other.
The closest race was in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse led Conservative candidate Marina Sapozhnikov by just 23 votes in the initial count.
Elections BC data released Friday shows at least 681 mail-in and absentee ballots left to count in that riding, which is also subject to a mandatory recount because it finished with the top two candidates separated by less than 100 votes on election night.
Also subject to a mandatory recount is the riding of Surrey City Centre, where NDP candidate Amna Shah led by 93 votes over the Conservatives' Zeeshan Wahla in the initial count.
