close
close

Mondor Festival

News with a Local Lens

Today’s mail-in ballot count will likely settle B.C.’s election
minsta

Today’s mail-in ballot count will likely settle B.C.’s election

British Columbia’s election could finally be decided today with the counting of mail-in ballots, after the recount and counting of mail-in votes failed to settle the weekend’s race.

Neither David Eby’s NDP in British Columbia nor John Rustad’s Conservatives in British Columbia came out of the weekend with the magic number of 47 seats required to form a majority in the 93 seats in the Legislative Assembly of the province.

But the recount increased the chances of a majority NDP government, when the Conservative lead in Surrey-Guildford was reduced to just 12 votes.

All eyes will be on this Metro Vancouver seat when counting resumes at 9 a.m. Pacific Time, with 226 absentee votes to be counted.

Elections BC says it will provide hourly updates as more than 22,000 mail-in ballots across the province are counted today.

As of 6:30 a.m. PT, the NDP is leading or elected in 46 ridings, the BC Conservatives are leading or elected in 45 and the Greens are with two MPs elected.

If the NDP wins Surrey-Guildford and keeps all the other ridings where it leads, it will get the narrowest majority at 47 seats.

Elections BC said there was no change in party rankings after the counting of absentee and assisted telephone ballots concluded on Sunday.

A full recount in downtown Surrey reduced the NDP lead by three votes, to 175, while a partial recount in downtown Kelowna saw the Conservative lead reduced by four votes, to 68.

WATCH | The election winner could be decided on Monday:

The outcome of British Columbia’s 2024 election will be determined Monday after weekend counting failed to produce a winner

The winner of British Columbia’s 2024 election will be decided Monday, with about 22,000 mail-in votes counted, after an updated tally of mail-in ballots over the weekend failed to designate a clear winner. Officials spent Saturday and Sunday counting the roughly 44,000 mail-in ballots sent after early voting closed, but said that was not enough to give a definitive answer.

The result of a full recount in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where the NDP leads by 113 votes, will also be announced Monday.

Even if the makeup of the Legislature could become clear, judicial recounts could still take place afterward if the margin in a district is less than 1/500th of all votes cast.

For example, in the tightest Surrey-Guildford race, where about 19,306 votes were cast, the margin for a judicial recount is about 38 votes or less.