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BC Election 2020

Why You’re Not Going to Wake Up to a New BC Government on Sunday

A flood of mail ballots and election rules means final results not likely for at least two weeks.

Christopher Cheung 23 Oct 2020TheTyee.ca

Christopher Cheung writes about the sociology of the city for The Tyee. Follow him on Twitter at @bychrischeung or email him here.

Voting in the provincial election ends at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Then what?

Technically, there’s nothing new about this year’s process. Ballots will be received and counted in the usual way. Some people have always chosen to mail in their ballots, and the final vote totals are never announced on election night because it takes time to screen and count the mail votes.

But the mail votes usually didn’t determine the outcome. In 2017, there were fewer than 7,000 mail-in ballots. This year, there will be more than 400,000.

That means election night is likely to end without clear winners in ridings across the province.

Here’s what to expect.

What will happen on election night?

Elections BC will release the counts of all in-person voting — at advanced polls and on Saturday — on election night.

Elections BC has never considered these the final results. But because in-person voting at ridings usually makes up 90 per cent of the total votes, the election night count usually is considered a definitive result.

(Last election in 2017, due to the narrow two-seat lead the Liberals had over the NDP, parties waited anxiously for the final count. When it was finally announced 15 days later, it did not result in any seats changing hands.)

This year, due to the high number of people choosing to vote by mail, the election night counts will be more incomplete.

Why do we have to wait more than two weeks for the final result to come out?

The Election Act states that mail-in ballots must not be counted until the 13th day after voting day.

These ballots aren’t just sitting around. Ballots received by Elections BC are returned to the appropriate voting districts.

“That’s always been the process,” said spokesperson Andrew Watson of Elections BC. “The district goes through the integrity check.”

The check includes screening to make sure the voter was eligible to cast a ballot and that no multiple voting occurred. Voter fraud, however, is rare, and comes with a hefty fine and up to two years of jail time.

Once the 13th day arrives — Nov. 6 this election — counting can begin. In 2017, it took two days to count about 179,000 absentee ballots, which included 6,517 mail-in ballots.

Due to the volume of mail-in ballots this election, counting will likely take longer than two days, though Watson does not expect it to drag into weeks.

As of Wednesday, Elections BC had received 396,900 completed mail-in ballots out of about 724,300 packages requested. More staff than usual have been hired to count them by hand.

What will happen when the counting of mail-in ballots begins?

Elections BC will announce when the counting begins. Before that, they’ll announce how many mail-in and absentee votes there are in each district.

Elections BC will share counts as they progress. The count may go at different speeds in different districts and may slow down and speed up at times. Parties can appoint scrutineers to watch the process, and challenge ballots if a voter’s intention on the ballot is unclear.

Expect results in a “staggered fashion,” said Watson.

Is there any chance of speeding the process up?

In 2018, the chief electoral officer made recommendations for new technology to be used to speed the process, said Watson.

However, the legislation was only adopted last year and is not scheduled to come into effect until 2021.

Premier John Horgan’s snap election means that we have one more go at the ballot under the current process.

To follow the gradual reporting of results on election night and beyond, you can visit Elections BC here.  [Tyee]

Read more: BC Election 2020

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