Briefly: Top election official Anton Boegman says errors won’t affect outcomes. Meanwhile, NDP MLA Garry Begg’s margin of victory shrunk after new votes discovered.
Bob Mackin
Elections BC is admitting it made several minor errors during the final, post-Oct. 19 count of votes cast outside of ridings.
Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman said in a midday statement on Nov. 4 that a data entry anomaly in Surrey-Guildford resulted in 14 votes for the riding not being reported.
Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin (left) and Elections BC chief Anton Boegman (X/Austin)
“My office immediately initiated a comprehensive province-wide review to determine if any other errors or omissions had occurred. The review occurred from Oct. 30-Nov. 3,” said the Boegman statement.
The review found data entry omissions happened in five ridings, when officials did not report out-of-district results that had been recorded on 11 tabulator tapes. That affected results in a total 69 ridings, but Boegman said the number of unreported votes was insignificant and did not affect outcomes.
According to Boegman, in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna-Centre, the unreported votes “represent less than 0.08% of all results reported.”
But sources in the Conservative and NDP camps told theBreaker.news that Surrey-Guildford NDP incumbent Garry Begg’s 27-vote margin has shrunk to 21.
“The additional votes in Surrey-Guildford have not been reported yet and will not be updated until they are counted as part of the judicial recount later this week,” said Elections BC spokesperson Melanie Hull.
Conservative Honveer Randhawa beat Begg on Oct. 19 by 102 votes, but the final count turned the riding back to orange. It ultimately gave the NDP a 47th riding, a slim, one-seat majority, when the final count was finished on Oct. 28. Lt.-Gov. Janet Austin then asked the NDP’s David Eby to carry on as premier.
In Kelowna, Conservative Kristina Loewen was the victor after the final count by 38 votes over the NDP’s Loyal Wooldridge.
Judicial recounts in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna-Centre are scheduled for Nov. 7-8.
Meanwhile, Elections BC also said it would apply Nov. 4 for a judicial recount of one ballot box in Prince George-Mackenzie, where Conservative Kiel Giddens was the winner.
Boegman’s statement revealed that a box containing 861 ballots that were not counted or reported on Oct. 19 was discovered. However, the judicial recount will not affect the outcome.
Where was the newly found Prince George-Mackenzie ballot box on election night and why was it not counted? Elections BC is not giving any hints.
“We are reviewing the circumstances that resulted in the reporting errors and will provide further detail when available,” Hull said.
theBreaker.news reported that, during the Oct. 10-16 week of advanced voting, polling station supervisors were allowed to take unused ballots, sealed ballot boxes and other important documents home each night for safe-keeping, if they were unable to store them at the local Elections BC district office.
Elections BC deemed the risk of transport and overnight storage in a private home less than the risk of leaving materials unattended in a temporary polling station. Procedures required cast ballots to be secured in a ballot box that was sealed and signed by election officials and scrutineers.
Elections BC spokesperson Andrew Watson emphasized that staff swore an oath to uphold the Election Act. Anyone caught and convicted of tampering with ballots and other election materials faces a fine up to $10,000, a year in jail or both.
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