BC’s final election results may not be determined until next week due to recounts

The final outcome of British Columbia’s 2024 provincial election remains undecided following Saturday’s vote, with no party yet declared the winner.

Currently, the BC NDP holds 46 seats, the BC Conservative Party 45, and the Green Party two.

With 47 seats required to form a majority government in the BC Legislature, the results of 11 closely contested ridings will determine the final outcome.

The BC NDP is leading in six of these ridings, while the BC Conservatives lead in five.

Two ridings—Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre—will undergo automatic recounts. Under BC election rules, any riding where the margin of victory is 100 votes or fewer is subject to an automatic recount.

In Juan de Fuca-Malahat, the BC NDP holds a narrow lead of 23 votes, while in Surrey City Centre, the margin is 96 votes in favour of the BC NDP.

The outcomes of these recounts, along with the final results for the other close ridings, are expected to be confirmed between October 26th and 28th, according to Elections BC.

Elections BC completed its initial count, which included out-of-district votes and mail-in ballots cast before advance voting ended.

As of early Sunday morning, 99.72% of the vote had been reported. However, an estimated 49,000 ballots, including late mail-in and out-of-district ballots, remain to be counted.

These ballots require additional integrity checks to confirm eligibility and ensure that no duplicate votes were cast.

Final results from these ballots will be released in late October after Elections BC conducts further quality assurance measures.

Elections BC noted that delays in some preliminary results were due to weather-related disruptions and the availability of election officials.

Additional time was also needed to double-check ballots as part of the election’s quality assurance process.

The next major update on the final results is expected by October 28th. Until then, British Columbians will have to wait to see which party will form the next provincial government.

Initial counting began promptly after polls closed at 8 p.m. Pacific time on October 19th.

With new counting technology in place, Elections BC’s efforts to streamline reporting saw unprecedented speed, with results from voting places using tabulators reported within 15 minutes, and over 50% of results available by 8:30 p.m.

By 9 p.m., 85% of preliminary results were in— a significant improvement from the 2017 election, where only 13.5% of results were reported by that time due to manual counting.

At the conclusion of the initial count, voter turnout for this election was estimated at 57.41%, an increase from the 53.86% recorded in the 2020 B.C. election.

A total of 2,037,897 ballots were cast, marking the highest number ever in a provincial election in British Columbia.

This surpasses the previous record of 1,986,374 votes cast in the 2017 election.