Elections B.C. accepts two of six requests for recounts

Elections B.C. has accepted two recount requests while denying four others because they do not meet the requirements set out in the Election Act.

According to a press release, the legislative office received recount requests from six candidates in five ridings where results were close on election night.

Liberal candidate Jim Benninger’s request for a recount in Courtney-Comox was accepted because the difference between the two top candidates was only nine votes, while three NDP and a Liberal candidates’ requests were denied because they do not meet the requirements.

The Election Act states that in cases where the difference between the two top candidates is more than 100 votes — as it was in Vancouver-False Creek, Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, Richmond-Queensborough and Maple Ridge-Mission — the request must include “factual basis that ballots were not correctly accepted or rejected, or that a ballot account does not accurately record the number of votes for a candidate.”

While Elections B.C. rejected NDP candidate Morgane Oger’s request for not meeting requirements, it accepted that of another candidate in the same Vancouver-False Creek riding, Phillip James Ryan, the leader of the B.C. Citizens First Party, who had 75 votes.

Elections B.C. said Ryan’s request for a recount was accepted because an advance voting ballot account recorded 403 votes for one candidate, while the tally sheet and parcel envelope containing ballots for the same candidate listed 399.

Preliminary results show a 560-vote spread in the riding where Liberal incumbent Sam Sullivan beat the NDP’s Oger.

A switch in any one or two of the contested ridings could determine the next B.C. government.

Christy Clark’s Liberals are one seat shy of a majority government with 43 seats based n election night tallies, while John Horgan’s New Democrats have 41 and Andrew Weaver’s Greens hold three.

The election result is also subject to change pending the counting of 179,000 absentee ballots.

The final count will take place between May 22 and 24.