The final ballot counts in B.C.’s snap election last month will start rolling in Friday morning.
Elections BC spokesperson Andrew Watson says the results will be updated on the Elections BC website on an ongoing basis as mail-in and absentee ballots are counted.
“Due to the really unprecedented volume of mail in ballots received this election it may take longer but certainly our goal is to complete it within three days,” he said.
A statement from Elections BC says it has received about 662,236 certification envelopes containing absentee or mail-in ballots from across the province. Those envelopes have now been sorted by electoral district and sent to be screened.
Certification envelopes that do not pass screening will not be opened, while certification envelopes that have no ballot or more than one marked ballot will also be set aside and not considered – meaning the total number of eligible mail-in and absentee ballots cast will be known only once the final count ends.
The results on election night Oct. 24 gave the NDP 53 seats, the B.C. Liberals 27, and the Greens three — leaving four ridings as undecided, the NDP and Liberals each leading two of those seats.
While the NDP is projected to form a majority government – the final seat count may change slightly. A party needs 44 seats to form a majority in the BC Legislature.
In Kamloops-North Thompson, there are an estimated 5,116 ballots to be counted. The Liberal incumbent Peter Milobar has a 791 vote lead over the NDP’s Sadie Hunter. While still a close race, Milobar previously told NL News he is confident that he will be returning to Victoria when the results are finalized.
Over in Kamloops-South Thompson, Liberal incumbent Todd Stone has a 4,013 vote lead over the NDP’s Anna Thomas with an estimated 7,497 ballots to be counted.
Fraser-Nicola, currently held by the Liberal’s Jackie Tegart is a lot closer. She has a 385 vote lead over the NDP’s Aaron Sumexheltza, with an estimated 2,433 ballots still to be counted.
Tegart previously told NL News that she is pleased to be ahead in the race, but she wasn’t declaring victory just yet.
You’ll find the approximate number of certification envelopes for each electoral district here.
