Provincial Election Final Count Scheduled October 26-28

There is no clear winner in the BC election.

The Initial count is complete in all electoral districts across the province, and Elections BC is preparing to administer the final count this weekend for the 2024 Provincial General Election.

Under the Election Act, final count cannot begin until at least the fourth day after Final Voting Day, and candidates cannot officially be declared elected until final count is complete. The final count runs from October 26 to 28.

Two ridings, too close to call, triggered automatic recounts - Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre.

The NDP was leading or elected in 46 ridings compared to the Conservatives at 45. The Green Party won two seats. 47 is needed for a majority government.

The North Island elected Conservative Anna Kindy, defeating incumbent Michele Babchuk by under 700 votes.

Ronna-Rae Leonard lost her seat in Courtenay-Comox to the Conservatives Brennan Day by about 230 votes.

Most types of ballots are counted at initial count.

This includes ballots from advance voting, Final Voting Day, and mail-in ballots received by mail before the close of advance voting. Some ballots cannot be counted until final count, because they require additional integrity checks to ensure the voter was eligible to vote and that they only voted once.

Final count includes absentee and mail-in ballots that cannot be counted at initial count. The majority of the ballots counted at final count will be mail-in ballots.

Elections BC estimates that approximately 49,000 ballots will be considered as part of the final count.

It is estimated that voter turnout was to be 57.41 percent, up from the 2020 election, in which 53.86 percent of registered voters cast a ballot.

As of the close of initial count, 2,037,897 ballots have been cast, the most ever in a provincial election in B.C. The previous record was 1,986,374 votes cast in the 2017 provincial election.