Breaking news Despite mistakes, the chief election officer says British Columbians can have trust in the election

Despite mistakes, the chief election officer says British Columbians can have trust in the election.

B.C.’s chief electoral officer, Anton Boegman, acknowledged “challenges” in the reporting of votes cast outside of district following the discovery of 28 uncounted votes in the key riding of Surrey-Guildford and 861 votes in Prince George-Mackenzie, but argued that the public’s awareness of this fact speaks to the integrity and transparency of the provincial election process. “What we have determined now and and what we have discovered and what we are transparently providing to British Columbians is a strong point of the processes that we have in B.C., the checks and balances that we have in B.C. to make sure that all ballots that are cast are counted and reported appropriately,” Boegman told the media.

He also expressed faith in election officials’ work, as well as “confidence that we have found any anomalies that have existed and that we will be able to count and report these votes.” Boegman’s comments came after his office informed the public on Monday that 28 out-of-district votes cast for candidates in Surrey-Guildford went uncounted after being discovered as part of a provincial assessment. The additional ballots pushed New Democrat Garry Begg ahead of Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa by 21 votes.

 

While Randhawa was leading in the riding after the initial count following the vote of Oct. 19, the riding flipped to Begg after the counting of all outstanding votes in giving the B.C. NDP a bare majority of 47 seats.

 

The riding is subject to a judicial recount Nov. 7/8, along with the riding of as well as Kelowna-Centre. That riding also saw change, with the margin separating Conservative Kristina Loewen from New Democrat Loyal Wooldridge increasing to 40 from 38.

The riding of Prince George-Mackenzie is also heading for a partial judicial recount after the discovery of an advanced ballot box with 861 votes with all but seven cast for candidates in that riding won by Conservative Kiel Giddens by 5,742 votes.

The unreported votes represent less than 0.08 per cent of all results reported, according to Elections BC.

 

Boegman said officials discovered the unreported ballots during preparations for the judicial recounts in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna-Centre with the discovery happening in two stages. The first phase revealed 14 votes. This discovery triggered a broader review, which found five electoral districts had failed to report out-of-district votes for 69 districts.

 

“It was in this review that we found a further 14 (votes) to make a total of 28 unreported ballots in Surrey-Guildford,” Boegman said, adding that this review changed results, but not any outcomes or even requirements for a judicial recount in those ridings.

 

This broader review took place between Oct. 29 and Nov. 3, but Elections BC did not notify the public that it was conducting this review because of a court order related to the two judicial recounts, which lifted on Nov. 4.

We subsequently provided that information as soon as we could,” Boegman said.

 

As for the unreported votes in Prince George-Mackenzie, Boegman said they stemmed from an advanced voting station. “The ballot box was in the custody of the district electoral officer,” he said. “It was sealed and it was in secured custody at all times.”

 

Boegman said local election officials should have included ballots from that box in their tabulation following an issue with the tabulator machine.

 

“When the election officials were re-tabulating the ballot box, they only included the ballots from the second day of advanced voting, from the day that the issue had occurred,” he said. “They should have also included the ballots that were in the sealed box in the district office (from the prior day of advanced voting), but they did not and that was an error of that team in the district. ”

 

Local officials then compounded their error when completing the ballot reconciliation portion of the process.