Elections Canada says that 822 special ballots cast from the riding of Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam, including four from Prince George ridings, were not counted on election night due to human error.
A media release issued on Wednesday, May 7 said that the 822 ballots cast by voters from 74 different ridings were mistakenly kept at the office of the returning officer in Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam instead of being returned to Elections Canada’s headquarters by 6 p.m. eastern on April 28, the legal deadline for them to have been counted.
An initial investigation into the incident has determined that the votes would not have affected the final outcome in any of the affected ridings and that it was caused by a failure to comply with written procedures.
Three of these uncounted ballots were in Cariboo-Prince George, where Conservative incumbent Todd Doherty secured his fourth consecutive victory, and one was in Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies, where fellow Tory Bob Zimmer won his fifth consecutive race.
Doherty earned 60.3 per cent of the vote in his riding while Zimmer earned 71.1 per cent of ballots cast.
Another five ballots were affected for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, where Conservative candidate Ellis Ross earned 47.2 per cent of votes cast.
A list showing how many ballots were involved from each of the affected ridings has been sent to all registered political parties. The most affected riding was Port Moody-Coquitlam, where 530 ballots went uncounted.
As a result of the incident, chief electoral officer Stéphane Perrault has ordered a complete review of controls in place to prevent it from happening again.
"My commitment to candidates, political parties and Canadians is that when issues related to the delivery of an election arise, we take all necessary steps to resolve them,” Perrault said in the release.
