Elections BC says box of 861 votes went uncounted, other votes unreported

By The Canadian Press on November 4, 2024.

B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau arrives to cast her ballot at Sir James Douglas Elementary School in the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding in Victoria, B.C., on Saturday, October 19, 2024. Elections BC says it has discovered that a ballot box containing 861 votes wasn't counted in the recent provincial election, as well as other mistakes including 14 votes being unreported in a crucial riding narrowly won by the NDP. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

VICTORIA – British Columbia’s election agency says it has discovered that a ballot box containing 861 votes wasn’t counted in the recent provincial election, as well as other mistakes, including 14 votes going unreported in a crucial riding narrowly won by the NDP.

Elections BC says omission of the ballot box did not affect the result in Prince George-Mackenzie, while the unreported votes in Surrey-Guildford were discovered last week during preparations for a judicial recount in the riding, where Garry Begg’s 27-vote victory propelled the New Democrats to a one-seat majority government.

B.C.’s chief electoral officer, Anton Boegman, says in a statement that the discovery of the “anomaly” in the Surrey-Guildford count triggered a provincewide review.

This review, which started last Wednesday and ended Sunday, identified what the statement describes as “data entry omissions” that resulted in mistakes in the vote counts in 69 of the province’s 93 ridings.

The statement says the number of unreported votes in each district was small and did not affect the outcome in any of them, pending judicial recounts in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna Centre.

It says a recount of the ballot box in Prince George-Mackenzie, which was easily won by B.C. Conservative Kiel Giddens, has been requested.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.