Final count set to begin today in the British Columbia election

VANCOUVER – Elections BC begins the final count today from last month’s provincial election.

The independent agency says it has received 662,000 certification envelopes containing absentee or mail-in ballots from across the province and it expects the final count to take at least three days.

Those envelopes have been sorted by electoral district and sent for screening, where some that don’t meet certification standards may be set aside before the final count begins.

Certification envelopes will only be opened during the final count and officials say that’s when envelopes that are empty or contain more than one ballot will be rejected.

Elections BC says that means the total number of eligible mail-in and absentee ballots cast in the provincial election will only be known once the final count ends.

The results on election night gave the NDP 53 seats, the B.C. Liberals 27 and the Greens three — leaving four ridings as undecided.

Andrew Wilkinson announced he was stepping down as leader of the B.C. Liberals two days after the Oct. 24 election.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2020.