The NDP has taken back the lead in Courtenay-Comox, one of the tightest races in the provincial election, but there are still hundreds of absentee ballots to be counted.
Ronna-Rae Leonard fell behind in the Vancouver Island riding as Elections BC conducted its final count Tuesday, but pulled back ahead over the course of the day, according to the last batch of numbers that will be released until Wednesday morning.
She currently leads Liberal rival Jim Benninger by 101 votes, the widest margin reported in the riding so far. She led by just nine votes in the initial count on election night.
All eyes have been on Courtenay-Comox because if it were to change hands to the Liberals, it would give Christy Clark's party the 44 seats required for a majority government.
A recount triggered by Leonard's razor-thin lead increased the margin to 13 votes on Monday, but that did not include the roughly 2,000 absentee ballots cast in the riding.
As those were being tallied the following day, Benninger briefly pulled ahead with an even tinier lead of three votes.
Results in most of the province's other ridings have already been finalized; Elections BC said counts were completed in 73 of 87 ridings by Tuesday evening.
Among them is the hard-fought riding of Richmond-Queensborough, where the Liberals' Jas Johal beat the NDP's Aman Singh by just 124 votes.
In Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, another tight race, Liberal candidate Joan Isaacs won by 87 votes at final count. She led the NDP's Jodie Wickens by 170 on election night.
Absentee ballots in Maple Ridge-Mission, which NDP candidate Bod D'Eith won by just 120 votes in the initial count, are still being tallied, but his lead over Liberal rival Marc Dalton had increased to 369 ballots as of the last update.
Province-wide, the final count has decreased the Liberals' popular vote lead over the NDP to a mere 2,612 votes, or 0.13 per cent of all ballots cast.
Even after it’s finished, there's still the possibility for judicial recounts, which can be requested in any riding that's won by fewer than 1/500 of the total votes cast.
In Courtenay-Comox, that amounts to roughly 55 ballots. In Maple Ridge-Mission, it's about 50.
Applications for judicial recounts, which are conducted by a B.C. Supreme Court judge, must be submitted within six days of the release of the final election results.
Elections BC’s next update is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday. If necessary, further results will be released at noon, 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
