Elections BC has denied a recount request in Oak Bay-Gordon Head by B.C. Green Party candidate Lisa Gunderson, who trailed the riding's winner by over 7,500 votes.
The party cited "discrepancies" in the vote that saw B.C. NDP's Diana Gibson capture the riding with 13,726 votes.
"[Gunderson] requested a recount after observing discrepancies in her reported vote count," said the B.C. Green Party in an email. "On election night, her votes were steadily increasing, yet the final tally displayed a reduction of approximately 2,000 votes the following day on the Elections BC website. This variation prompted Dr. Gunderson to seek clarification, as transparency in the voting process is of utmost importance."
The request, however, didn't meet Elections BC's requirements for a recount, which the body will only approve if, "Votes were not correctly accepted or ballots were not correctly rejected, a ballot account does not accurately record the number of votes for a candidate, or the results of the quality assurance process indicate that vote-counting equipment did not process ballots accurately."
"We received confirmation from our District Electoral Officer that the discrepancy was due to a human error in reporting," added the party in the same email. "Dr. Gunderson’s inquiry was solely in the interest of understanding the process and ensuring accuracy, not out of an expectation of a different election outcome."
Recounts have also been denied in Courtenay-Comox, Kelowna Centre, Maple Ridge East and Surrey-Guildford ridings.
On Oct. 27, two recounts will begin in Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre ridings because the top two candidates were within 100 votes of each other. In the former, the B.C. NDP candidate held a razor-thin, 23-vote lead.
A partial recount has been approved for Kelowna Centre.
