A judicial recount is underway in the most tightly contested riding in British Columbia’s historically close provincial election.
Election officials, scrutineers for the BC NDP and BC Conservative Party and a B.C. Supreme Court judge hunkered down at an industrial building in Surrey on Thursday to hand-count ballots for the Surrey-Guildford riding.
Following Elections BC’s final count in that riding, the NDP’s 47-seat majority government hinged on a 27-vote win in Surrey-Guildford.
A subsequent provincewide audit found 28 ballots cast outside of the district that went initially uncounted, due to “human error,” according to Elections BC. The result of those ballots subsequently cut NDP candidate Gary Begg’s lead down to 21 votes.
Elections BC said it would begin Thursday by examining those ballots, before moving on to the full 19,090 ballots to be recounted.
The work is being split up between 10 teams of two Elections BC workers, with the count observed by two scrutineers, one from the NDP and one from the Conservatives. Lawyers are also on site.
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If a hand-counted ballot is flagged, a representative from each party will look at it. If they agree on what the voter’s intention was, the ballot will be counted, but if they disagree, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kevin Loo will adjudicate.
Results of the recount are expected to be available by Friday.
It is rare but not unheard of in B.C. for a recount to change the outcome of a tight race.
This recount is particularly critical because if the BC Conservatives flip the riding, the NDP would be reduced to 46 seats, making it a minority government.
A concurrent judicial recount in Kelowna Centre was also scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The BC Conservatives lead the NDP in that riding by 38 votes.
Elections BC is also conducting a partial recount in Prince George-Mackenzie, where a post-election audit discovered an entire ballot box had gone uncounted. The Conservatives hold a large lead in that riding, and the results of the partial recount are not expected to change the outcome.
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