B.C. election: Final count begins Saturday, will add roughly 66K votes to total, Elections BC says

The final count of ballots in the 2024 B.C. election begins Saturday, with more than 66,000 mail-in and absentee votes potentially yet to be counted across the province's 93 electoral districts.

Elections BC says even more ballots may still be added to the total outstanding, as some districts have certification envelopes they are still screening to determine whether the ballots inside are valid.

The addition of these 66,000-plus votes has the potential to change the results of the nail-bitingly close election, which saw the initial count conclude last weekend with the B.C. NDP leading in 46 ridings, the B.C. Conservative Party leading in 45 and the B.C. Greens leading in two.

Five ridings finished the initial count with the top two candidates within one percentage point of each other.

The closest race was in Juan de Fuca-Malahat, where NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse led Conservative candidate Marina Sapozhnikov by just 23 votes in the initial count.

Elections BC data released Friday shows at least 681 mail-in and absentee ballots left to count in that riding, which is also subject to a mandatory recount because it finished with the top two candidates separated by less than 100 votes on election night.

Also subject to a mandatory recount is the riding of Surrey City Centre, where NDP candidate Amna Shah led by 93 votes over the Conservatives' Zeeshan Wahla in the initial count.

There are at least 476 ballots to be counted in Surrey City Centre during the final count, according to Elections BC.

The three other ridings where the leading candidate's margin is less than one per cent of votes cast in the district are:

• Courtenay-Comox: Conservative Brennan Day leads NDP incumbent Ronna-Rae Leonard by 234 votes; at least 995 ballots left to count
• Kelowna Centre: Conservative Kristina Loewen leads New Democrat Loyal Wooldridge by 148 votes; at least 818 ballots left to count
• Surrey-Guildford: Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa leads NDP incumbent Garry Begg by 103 votes; at least 634 ballots left to count

Forty-seven seats are required for a majority, so a gain of one seat for the NDP or two seats for the Conservatives in the final count could give that party the ability to form a government without help from another party's MLAs.

If the riding tally ends up unchanged, the Greens will hold the balance of power in a minority legislature, with either NDP Leader David Eby or Conservative Leader John Rustad needing support from Green MLAs to become premier.

Data released by Elections BC Friday afternoon shows a total of 66,074 "certification envelopes" accepted for the final count. 

The counting process will involve opening the envelopes and separating the ballots inside from the envelopes themselves and from their security sleeves.

Any envelopes that contain no ballot or multiple ballots will be set aside and not counted, Elections BC said.

Elections BC said earlier this week that it plans to share partial results from its final count at 1 p.m. and again at 4 p.m. on Saturday, and again at those times on Sunday.

CTV News will be updating this article with the latest results as they come in over the weekend.