By Rebel News | Created at 2024-11-06 01:09:54 | Updated at 2024-11-06 04:39:04
5 hours ago
Skepticism surrounding British Columbia's recent election has intensified following a statement posted on Elections BC’s website Monday afternoon, informing the public that election officials neglected to count nearly 900 votes, predominantly from the Prince George-Mackenzie riding.
“This afternoon Elections BC is applying for a judicial recount for one ballot box in the Prince George-Mackenzie (PRM) electoral district, after discovering that votes from that ballot box were not counted or reported on election night,” the statement from Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman began.
The missing ballot box, containing approximately 861 tabulated votes, should not impact the outcome of the MLA seat for the riding, as before its discovery, Conservative MLA-elect Kiel Giddens held a lead of more than 5,000 votes over his NDP contender.
Boegman further disclosed that additional votes were neglected to be counted in over 60 ridings, before Elections BC’s final count was supposedly completed on October 28.
“I have also issued an Order of the Chief Electoral Officer to correct several errors in results reporting at final count,” said Boegman. “Election officials in five electoral districts erred by not reporting out-of-district results that had been recorded on 11 tabulator tapes (part of the ballot account). These errors were discovered during preparations for the judicial recounts in Kelowna Centre (KEC) and Surrey-Guildford (SRG).”
“In both cases, the unreported votes represent less than 0.08% of all results reported. For context, across 93 electoral districts, there were approximately 2,500 ballots.”
The statement also claimed that none of the reporting omissions would affect the outcome of any electoral district, even though a 14-vote discrepancy due to data entry was found in Surrey-Guildford, the most closely contested riding.
After the October 27 recount concluded, the formerly Conservative Party-held lead flipped in favour of the NDP, whose MLA-elect Gary Begg won the seat by a mere 27 votes — a result that has been attributed to the NDP narrowly winning a majority government with the minimum 47 seats required.
Following Elections BC’s unsettling statement, Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad took to X to express concern over the missed ballot box and the “14 unreported votes in Surrey-Guildford—a crucial riding narrowly won by the NDP.”
“While I am not disputing the final outcome pending remaining judicial recounts, it’s clear that mistakes like these severely undermine public trust in our electoral process. This is an unprecedented failure by the very institution responsible for ensuring the fairness and accuracy of our elections. At a time when confidence in election integrity is more fragile than ever before, British Columbians deserve assurance that every vote counts and that these errors are corrected.”
The soon-to-be official opposition leader also stated that he is calling for “an independent review to ensure that these types of mistakes never happen again.”
Raising further eyebrows about the competence involved in tallying the election’s votes is new information released today that corrects details in the Chief Electoral Officer’s initial statement, pointing to issues with the highly scrutinized Dominion tabulators used to tally the ballots.
On Tuesday, CHEK News political correspondent Rob Shaw reported on X that Elections BC now says it was “28 votes missing/miscounted in Surrey-Guildford, not the 14 it reported yesterday,” which leaves the NDP’s winning lead at 21 votes.
He also noted that the uncounted Prince George-Mackenzie ballot box was the result of officials failing to count it “after a previous problem involving the tabulator machine” was not reconciled on election night.
“These mistakes were a result of human error,” Boegman stated in a video update about the discrepancies earlier today.
“Elections officials were working 14 hours or more on voting days and on final voting day, in particular, faced extremely challenging weather conditions across the provinces. These conditions likely contributed to these mistakes,” excused Boegman.
Drea Humphrey
B.C. Bureau Chief
Based in British Columbia, Drea Humphrey reports on Western Canada for Rebel News. Drea’s reporting is not afraid to challenge political correctness, or ask the tough questions that mainstream media tends to avoid.
