What you need to know about vote counting

COVID-19 has made this provincial election different from any other.

According to Elections B.C., this is the first time an election has been held in the province during a pandemic and it has presented significant administrative challenges, including vote tabulation.

Instead of voting on election day, Oct. 24, many British Columbians chose to request mail-in voting packages or cast their ballots at advance polls. Over seven days, 681,000 people voted in person at advance polls and, as of Thursday night, almost 480,000 had returned mail-in packages. In total, about 3.5 million people are registered to vote in B.C.

Here is how the counting process is expected to unfold.

INITIAL COUNT

On election night, Elections B.C. will provide preliminary results, which will include votes from seven days of advance voting and election day.

Normally, 90 per cent of ballots cast in an election are counted at initial count, but it's likely that figure will be much lower because of the significant increase in mail-in ballots — possibly as low as 65 to 70 per cent.

Mail-in ballot results will not be included because they are accepted at locations across the province until polls close on Oct. 24 and need to be processed before they are counted.

MAIL- IN AND ABSENTEE BALLOTS

There are a number of ways to cast an absentee vote, including voting outside of one's electoral district, at a voting place other than one's assigned location, at a district electoral office, or by mail-in ballot.

Last election, there were more than 160,000 absentee ballots — out of almost two million votes — 6,500 of which were mail-in. But almost 725,000 vote-by-mail packages were issued for this election, about 66 per cent of which had been returned by Thursday evening.

PREPARING FOR THE FINAL COUNT

The final count normally begins 13 days after voting day.

During that gap, absentee ballots, which can be received and cast throughout the province, are sent to the voter's home district and screened for eligibility before counting. That includes checking mail-in certification envelopes to make sure that legislative requirements are met, such as voter eligibility. Those that don't meet requirements are set aside and not counted.

Screening cannot happen until after voting day, so officials can ensure people don't vote more than once.

FINAL COUNT

The final ballot count usually takes three days, but this time it could take longer because of the volume of mail-ins. All votes are counted by hand.

FINAL RESULTS

Once a district completes its count of absentee ballots, final results will be announced and reported on the Elections B.C. website. After a final count, candidates have six days to request a judicial recount. One must occur if there is a tie between the top two candidates or a victory margin of less than 1/500th of the total ballots considered. Once the judicial recount request period has expired and any judicial recounts have been completed, districts returns their writ of election to the chief electoral officer, ending the election period in that district.

To close the election, the chief electoral officer delivers a report to the clerk of the legislative assembly that shows the individuals elected to serve as MLA. The goal is to meet a writ return date of Nov. 16.