Elections BC says votes cast on election day will be tallied manually, while advance and district office ballots will be counted with tabulators before a scheduled final count in early November.
The Story
It is the last full day of campaigning in British Columbia’s election ahead of final voting day on Saturday.
Elections BC has confirmed that votes cast on election day will be tallied manually, departing from the 2024 general election when paper ballots were counted using electronic tabulators for the first time. In a statement, the agency said it is returning to a manual count due to “short time frames and complex operational logistics of a snap election.”
Elections BC said paper ballots cast at advance polling stations and at district electoral offices will still be counted with electronic tabulators, and it expects those results to be reported first after ballots close at 8 p.m.
The agency also said the election-night count will not include absentee or mail-in ballots. Those ballots will be tallied at a final count scheduled for Nov. 6 to Nov. 10.
Elections BC’s report on the 2024 election said electronic tabulation enabled the first preliminary results to be reported within five minutes of polls closing, with 59 per cent of preliminary results reported within half an hour; it noted that in past elections first results typically started to be reported around 45 minutes after polls closed.
Meanwhile, the B.C. Conservatives held a rally in Surrey on Thursday night where mayor-elect Doug McCallum endorsed Lorne Doerkson as the province’s next premier. Also present at the rally were former B.C. premier Christy Clark, and former Surrey mayors Linda Hepner and Dianne Watts.
McCallum said he was “standing with people who had changed Surrey” and that it was time to change B.C. The 82-year-old McCallum is set to begin his third separate stint as Surrey’s mayor after defeating incumbent Brenda Locke in the Oct. 17 municipal elections.
← More stories