Recounts Accepted in Two B.C. Ridings
Victoria, B.C. – Elections BC has rendered an important decision regarding recounts connected to this week’s provincial election in British Columbia.
Communications manager Andrew Watson says recounts will take place in the Courtenay-Comox and Vancouver-False Creek ridings from May 22 to 24 but notes recounts in three other ridings – Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, Maple Ridge-Mission, and Richmond-Queensborough have been rejected.
He says recount requests are accepted if:
- The difference between the top two candidates is close (defined in the Election Act as 100 votes or fewer);
- Votes were not correctly accepted or ballots were not correctly rejected, or a ballot account does not accurately record the number of votes for a candidate.
“In Courtenay-Comox, the recount request was accepted because the difference between the top two candidates is nine votes,” says Watson. “Phillip James Ryan’s request for a recount in Vancouver-False Creek was accepted because an advance voting ballot record 402 votes for one candidate, and the tally sheet and parcel envelope containing ballots for that candidate lists 399.”
He adds recount requests were not accepted if they did not meet the requirements set out in the Elections Act.
“In cases where the difference between the top two candidates is greater than 100 votes, recount requests must include factual basis that ballots were not correctly accepted or rejected, or that a ballot account does not accurately record the number of votes for a candidate.”
(In Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, the NDP candidate lost by 268 votes, in Maple Ridge-Mission the Liberal lost by 120 votes and in Richmond-Queensborough the NDP candidate lost by 263 votes. The NDP’s Morgane Oger’s request for a recount was rejected as it did not meet the requirements however it will go forward because Phillip James Ryan’s request was accepted in the same riding).
Watson says applications for a judicial recount can still be made up until this Monday.
The recounts are of paramount importance following Tuesday’s election result which saw the BC Liberals win 43 seats, the NDP 41 and the BC Greens 3.
Comments
It is a fatal flaw of our system that we don’t account for spoiled ballots. That is how elections are stolen, and not through the actual count of votes counted for candidates. Elections BC is a sad joke of an organization.
Actually they rejected recounts in 4 ridings but who’s counting ? Me . Fatal flaw ? Did something die ? The only thing I find odd is , why has She been called the winner when the votes have not all been counted ? CC should not be in charge of anything till the last votes are counted including the recounts .
Well Christy Clark did ask for permission to continue running BC until everything is counted! That’s why she is running BC at this moment. I won’t post links to another news page but you can just Google “Who gave Christy Clark permission to continue running BC 2017” see what you get for a result.
Even though technically the Lieutenant General is a figurehead the government must seek permission to or receive a request from the Lieutenant General to continue operating, prologue, form a cabinet and so on.
The Lieutenant Governor is a provincial representative of the Governor General of Canada who is in turn a representative of the Queen who has ultimate authority and can order the Governor General to act on her behalf who in turn can order the Lieutenant Governors to act on the Hovernor Generals behalf
B.C. Lieutenant-governor Judith Guichon has asked Premier Christy Clark to continue to govern the province with her current minority of seats, says Clark’s office.
Just to clarify. Media can get it wrong, but.
Premier Clark was asked by the Lieutenant Governor to continue as Premier until all election results are in. That includes absentee ballots and recounts.
Comments for this article are closed.