B.C.'s chief electoral officer Anton Boegman acknowledged "challenges" in the reporting of votes cast out of district following the discovery of 28 uncounted votes in the key riding of Surrey-Guildford as well as 861 votes in Prince George-Mackenzie, but also argued that the public's knowledge of this fact speaks to the integrity and transparency of the provincial election process.
"What we have determined now and and what we have discovered and what we are transparently providing to British Columbians is a strong point of the processes that we have in B.C., the checks and balances that we have in B.C. to make sure that all ballots that are cast are counted and reported appropriately," Boegman said.
He also added that he has confidence in the work of election officials as well as "confidence that we have found any anomalies that have been there and that we are going to enable these votes to be counted and reported."
Boegman made these comments after his office Monday told the public that 28 out-of-district votes cast for candidates in Surrey-Guildford went uncounted following their discovery as part of a province-wide review. The additional ballots changed the margin separating New Democrat Garry Begg from Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa to 21 in favour of Begg.
While Randhawa was leading in the riding after the initial count following the vote of Oct. 19, the riding flipped to Begg after the counting of all outstanding votes in giving the B.C. NDP a bare majority of 47 seats.
The riding is subject to a judicial recount Nov. 7/8, along with the riding of as well as Kelowna-Centre. That riding also saw change, with the margin separating Conservative Kristina Loewen from New Democrat Loyal Wooldridge increasing to 40 from 38.
The riding of Prince George-Mackenzie is also heading for a partial judicial recount after the discovery of an advanced ballot box with 861 votes with all but seven cast for candidates in that riding won by Conservative Kiel Giddens by 5,742 votes.
The unreported votes represent less than 0.08 per cent of all results reported, according to Elections BC.
Boegman said officials discovered the unreported ballots during preparations for the judicial recounts in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna-Centre with the discovery happening in two stages. The first phase revealed 14 votes. This discovery triggered a broader review, which found five electoral districts had failed to report out-of-district votes for 69 districts.
"It was in this review that we found a further 14 (votes) to make a total of 28 unreported ballots in Surrey-Guildford," Boegman said, adding that this review changed results, but not any outcomes or even requirements for a judicial recount in those ridings.
This broader review took place between Oct. 29 and Nov. 3, but Elections BC did not notify the public that it was conducting this review because of a court order related to the two judicial recounts, which lifted on Nov. 4.
"We subsequently provided that information as soon as we could," Boegman said.
As for the unreported votes in Prince George-Mackenzie, Boegman said they stemmed from an advanced voting station. "The ballot box was in the custody of the district electoral officer," he said. "It was sealed and it was in secured custody at all times."
Boegman said local election officials should have included ballots from that box in their tabulation following an issue with the tabulator machine.
"When the election officials were re-tabulating the ballot box, they only included the ballots from the second day of advanced voting, from the day that the issue had occurred," he said. "They should have also included the ballots that were in the sealed box in the district office (from the prior day of advanced voting), but they did not and that was an error of that team in the district. "
Local officials then compounded their error when completing the ballot reconciliation portion of the process.
"That's where they would assess the number of voters voting through the strike-off data against the number of ballots cast," he said.
Ultimately, Boegman blamed human error for the mistakes.
"Our elections rely on the work of over 17,000 election officials from communities across the province," he said. "Election officials were working 14 hours or more on voting days and on final voting day in particular faced extremely challenging weather conditions in many parts of the province," he said. "These conditions likely contributed to these mistakes."
Boegman said his office has already launched and will continue to fully investigate "all aspects" that contributed to the errors. This assessment will be part of the report about the 2024 election that Elections BC will submit to the provincial legislature as per its mandate. That report would also include any recommendations for improvements, he added.
Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad Tuesday had issued a statement in which he reiterated his acceptance of the outcome, but also called for an independent review of the errors.
Boegman declined to directly comment on Rustad's appeal, but added that his office would "of course fully participate" in such a process if the provincial legislature were to launch an independent review.
Premier David Eby Tuesday afternoon also issued a statement in which he proposed the creation of an all-party committee that would examine systems and steps taken by Elections BC, hear from experts and recommend improvements for future elections.
"British Columbians need to be assured that strong safeguards are in place to catch these issues and ensure every vote is counted accurately," Eby said. "I remain confident in the outcome of the election. At the same time, it’s clear we need to review the processes, technologies and systems used to tally votes accurately and support public confidence.
"I look forward to working with all MLAs to uphold our shared commitment to free and fair elections, the foundation of our democracy."
