B.C. election results: Mail-in ballots favouring NDP as recounts begin in 2 ridings

The B.C. NDP has claimed the majority of mail-in ballots tallied so far this weekend for the final count in the province’s nail-bitingly close 2024 election, increasing the chances of the party clinching a third term.

Of the 35,467 additional votes counted since Saturday morning, 54 per cent have gone to David Eby’s incumbent NDP, while only 34 per cent have gone to John Rustad’s B.C. Conservatives.

The B.C. Greens have taken eight per cent of the votes, and the rest have gone to a mix of Independent and third-party candidates.

No ridings have changed hands, though the NDP has strengthened its lead significantly in several close ridings, and nearly eliminated the gap with the leading B.C. Conservative candidate in another.

Recounts underway

Two of those close ridings are Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre, where automatic recounts were triggered because the NDP was ahead by fewer than 100 votes in the initial count.

Those recounts began Sunday afternoon.

The NDP’s Dana Lajeunesse was beating Conservative candidate Marina Sapozhnikov in Juan de Fuca-Malahat by just 23 votes on election night, but the mail-in ballots counted this weekend have increased his lead to 106.

In Surrey City Centre, it was a similar story for NDP candidate Amna Shah, who extended her lead over the Conservatives' Zeeshan Wahla from 95 votes to 178 votes.

NDP catching up in Surrey-Guildford 

The closest race in the province as of Sunday afternoon was in Surrey-Guildford, where Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa led NDP incumbent Garry Begg by just 12 votes.

In the initial count after election night, Randhawa's lead was 103 votes.

Three other races were within one percentage point on Sunday afternoon. Those were Courtenay-Comox, Kelowna Centre and Maple Ridge East.

All three were led by Conservatives on election night, and all three have seen the leads narrow in the final count.

In Courtenay-Comox, Conservative Brennan Day leads NDP incumbent Ronna-Rae Leonard by 116 votes, roughly half the 234 he led by on election night.

In Kelowna Centre, Conservative Kristina Loewen leads the NDP's Loyal Wooldridge by 72 votes. Her election night lead was 148.

And in Maple Ridge East, where Conservative Lawrence Mok led NDP incumbent Bob D'Eith by 327 votes in the initial count, Mok's lead decreased to 163 votes on Saturday.

Notably, hundreds of absentee ballots remain to be counted in each of these close ridings.

Final count schedule

The final count of ballots began Saturday, with Elections B.C. tallying more than 66,000 mail-in and absentee votes across the province's 93 electoral districts.

Mail-in ballots are being counted throughout the weekend, before the counting of absentee ballots begins Monday. Elections B.C. is expected to announce the final results Monday as well.

The addition of these 66,000-plus votes has the potential to change the results of the incredibly 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.

The party standings remained the same as of Sunday afternoon.

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 Eby or Rustad needing support from Green MLAs to become premier.

Data released by Elections B.C. 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 B.C. said.

Elections B.C. 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.