Elections BC approves two district electoral officer recounts
By Contributor
Elections BC said in a media release it has approved two district electoral officer recounts as part of the final count in the ridings of Courtenay-Comox and Vancouver-False Creek, which will take place May 22 to 24.
Elections BC said under the Election Act, candidates or their official agents can request a recount of some or all of the ballots considered at initial count within three days after General Voting Day.
The ridings that did not meet criteria were Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, Maple Ridge-Mission, Richmond Queensborough and Vancouver-False Creek.
Recount requests are accepted if:
- the difference between the top two candidates is close (defined in the Election Act as 100 votes or fewer); or
- votes were not correctly accepted or ballots were not correctly rejected, or a ballot account does not accurately record the number of votes for a candidate.
Elections BC said in Courtenay-Comox, the recount request was accepted because the difference between the top two candidates is nine votes.
“Phillip James Ryan’s request for a recount in Vancouver-False Creek was accepted because an advance voting ballot account records 403 votes for one candidate, and the tally sheet and parcel envelope containing ballots for that candidate lists 399,” the Elections BC media release said.
“Recount requests were not accepted if they did not meet the requirements of the Election Act. In cases where the difference between the top two candidates is greater than 100 votes, recount requests must include factual basis that ballots were not correctly accepted or rejected, or that a ballot account does not accurately record the number of votes for a candidate.”
Elections BC said Morgane Oger’s request for a recount was not accepted as it did not meet these requirements while dditional information related to the request was received by the deadline, but by the time that it was received Phillip James Ryan’s request had already been accepted.
In 2008 the Election Act was revised to establish clear criteria under which district electoral officer recount requests are accepted. Following the 2009 and 2013 general elections, district electoral officer recount requests were only made on the basis that 100 votes or fewer separated the top two candidates.
Applications for a judicial recount can be made up to six days after the conclusion of final count.
