British Columbians may have to wait longer for provincial election results Saturday as Elections BC prepares to count election-day ballots by hand.
The province’s election agency is using a hybrid counting system for the Oct. 24 election, with electronic tabulators processing advance votes and ballots cast at district electoral offices.
Votes cast at other polling stations on election day will be counted manually.
Elections BC said the change is necessary because of the short notice and logistical challenges associated with the snap election.
“This is due to the short timeframes and complex operational logistics of a snap election,” the agency said in a statement.
Chief electoral officer Shipra Verma said there was not enough time to properly deploy electronic vote-counting equipment across the province.
Polls close at 8 p.m. Pacific time Saturday, with results from electronically counted ballots expected first. Results from hand-counted ballots are expected to begin coming in around 9 p.m.
The change could mean a longer wait for election-night results compared with 2024, when electronic tabulators were used across the province for the first time.
Elections BC reported the first preliminary results within five minutes of polls closing that year, with 59 per cent of preliminary results reported within 30 minutes.
Advance voting down from 2024
According to Elections BC, 891,348 ballots were cast during advance voting this year, representing nearly 24 per cent of the province’s 3,738,182 registered voters.
That is approximately 11 per cent fewer advance ballots than the 1,001,331 cast during the 2024 provincial election.
Despite the decline, advance voting remained higher than in 2020, when 681,055 ballots were cast before election day.
Final results could take weeks
A close election could leave some races undecided on election night.
Elections BC said mail-in and absentee ballots will not be included in the preliminary election-night count. Those ballots are scheduled to be counted during the final count from Nov. 6 to 10.
The 2024 provincial election demonstrated how close races can delay a final outcome.
Eleven ridings remained without clear winners on election night, with the final count establishing that the NDP would form government.
Two judicial recounts were subsequently required before the party’s narrow majority was confirmed, nearly three weeks after voters went to the polls.
