With the votes cast Oct. 24 and ballots collected at the advance polls now counted, Elections BC has started sorting and verifying hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots from across B.C.
The 16,071 votes counted so far in Powell River-Sunshine Coast represent about 39 per cent of the 41,282 registered voters in the riding, which had a 69.6 per cent turnout in the 2017 election.
Elections BC has not said yet how many of the 8,338 mail-in ballots requested were filled out and returned by the deadline of 8 p.m. Oct. 24. That information is expected later this week.
Elections BC is also yet to release the number of ballots cast at the district electoral office. In 2017 1,906 people voted directly at the electoral office and some 1,500 cast special or absentee ballots. Counting of those types of ballots will be done at the same time as the mail-ins.
In a pre-election briefing, chief electoral officer Anton Boegman said the agency hopes to begin the final count on Nov. 6, the earliest date allowed under the province’s election laws, but that the volume of mail-in ballots may require an extension of the “preparatory period” which may delay the final count.
Boegman said the work to screen the mail-in ballots and return them to proper district electoral officers is all done manually.
“It will take, at minimum, a full 13 days to do this – even with additional resources added in all of our electoral districts.”
Part of the screening process is ensuring the voters who sent mail-in ballots didn’t vote at the regular polls as well.
“If someone votes in person and they also voted by mail then that vote by mail package will get set aside [and] not get considered,” Boegman said.
“Our commitment is to complete this process as quickly as possible while maintaining the necessary integrity checks,” Boegman said. “When we accurately know the volume of vote by mail and other absentee ballots to be counted, we will be able to determine when final count will begin.”
The final count is typically done over three days by the district returning officers and their deputies, but Boegman said Elections BC will also make additional resources available to help with the final count if needed.
Elections BC’s target for filing the official returns is Nov. 16, but Boegman cautioned that any delays in the preparations for the final count or the final count itself could lead to the returns being filed later.
