Election 2021: Tight races and mail-in ballots could mean a long wait for winners to be declared in BC

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A series of close contests, the high volume of mailed ballots and the possibility of recounts mean that it could be weeks before the winners are declared in some federal districts of British Columbia.

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No winners have been declared in Vancouver-Granville, where liberal Taleeb Noormohamed leads NDP candidate Anjali Appadurai by just 230 votes. It is close to a tie at Richmond Center, where liberal challenger Wilson Miao leads current conservative Alice Wong by 671 votes. And the battle also continues in Nanaimo-Ladysmith, where fewer than 1,000 votes separate Lisa Marie Barron from the NDP from Tamara Kronis from the conservative.

“It’s nail-biting races where you now bite down to your cuticles, because it’s so stressful,” said Kim Speers, a political analyst who teaches public administration at the University of Victoria.

You will continue to bite your nails as all of those districts have thousands of ballots in the mail that have yet to be counted.

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In West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky, some media outlets have declared liberal incumbent Patrick Weiler the winner. Weiler is confident the leadership will continue, but knows he will have to wait until the mail-in ballots are counted before delivering a victory speech.

“I can tell you that it was a very stressful experience to see the results come in,” Weiler said Tuesday. “So today, I am responding to the hundreds of texts and messages from friends, family and colleagues. I’m going to have a little time to relax because it has been a very intense campaign, just spending time with my partner and our cats, who can get a bit sassy when we’re not paying much attention to them. “

His opponent, conservative John Weston, believes that he will finally be declared the winner, once all the counting has been done.

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“The story is not necessarily complete,” Weston said Tuesday. “We know there are over 6,000 mail-in ballots to count and the difference between us is 2,200, so I’m taking my mind off it right now and removing the signs around driving on this nice sunny day.” .

British Columbia has led the country when it comes to vote-by-mail ballots. According to Leger’s poll, 12 percent of eligible voters in British Columbia chose to cast their vote by mail, which is double the national average of six percent.

Andrew Enns, Leger’s vice president, believes that the experience of British Columbia voters in provincial elections is the reason.

“A large number chose to vote by mail in the provincial elections,” he explained. “The fact that those votes were received and counted and became part of the official result without any controversy, there were no complaints from the other parties. It was a smooth process so that people could trust to do the same in this federal election. “

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Leger interviewed 2,000 Canadians in an online survey Sept. 10-13, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.19 percent.

“The results deviated a bit more for NDP supporters who chose to vote by mail, not by large numbers, but it’s remarkable,” Enns said. “Ten percent of NDP supporters nationwide, compared to six to seven percent for the other two major parties.”

That may be just one factor at Nanaimo-Ladysmith, where the NDP and the Conservatives are vying for the top spot. Final results are not expected until Friday night.

Mail-in ballots are counted in the voting areas they come from, and all ballots must be verified first, which can be a time-consuming process.

Even after mail ballots are counted in closed constituencies, the possibility of a recount looms.

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According to Elections Canada, “A judicial recount must be conducted if the leading candidates in an electoral district receive the same number of votes after the results have been validated or if the difference in votes is less than one thousandth of the total votes cast. . “

For example, in an electoral district where 40,000 votes were cast, if the difference in the number of votes for the first and second candidate was less than 40, a judicial recount would be required ”.

A judge should be asked to carry out the count. An individual may also request a recount if they swear an affidavit stating that they believe the recount was conducted incorrectly, that the ballots were incorrectly rejected, that the statement of the vote contains an incorrect number of votes cast for a candidate, or that the scrutineer incorrectly added the results in validation.

Although the final vote count in BC will not affect the liberal minority government, it will make a difference for the candidates.

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