Elections B.C. has granted a request for a recount in the Courtenay-Comox riding, where just nine votes separate the top two candidates.
There will also be a recount in Vancouver-False Creek, but Elections B.C. has rejected requests for recounts in three other ridings.
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Liberal candidate Jim Benninger, who lost Courtenay-Comox to New Democrat Ronna-Rae Leonard, submitted the request. Leonard had 10,058 votes after the initial count, while Benninger had 10,049.
The recount is set for May 22 to 24, and absentee ballots — those cast outside the riding — are to be counted at that time as well. An estimated 1,000 to 1,500 absentee ballots were not included in the initial count.
The result in Courtenay-Comox could give Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberals a majority government, or it could reduce her to a minority, with her party holding less than half of the seats in the legislature.
After the initial count on Tuesday night, the Liberals are one seat shy of a majority. They have 43 seats, while John Horgan’s New Democrats have 41 and Andrew Weaver’s Green Party has three seats.
If the New Democrats lose Courtenay-Comox, and no other seats change hands in the final count, the Liberals will have the 44 seats needed for a majority. If the Liberals have 43 seats, the Green Party will hold the balance of power.
The final count, which will include 176,000 absentee ballots, will be completed in all ridings during May 22-24.
Recount requests are accepted if the difference between the top two candidates is 100 votes or less, if there were errors with accepting or rejecting ballots, or if there were discrepancies between the ballot count and number of votes for a candidate.
Elections B.C. said not all requests for recounts met the vote criteria or provided enough evidence that ballots were improperly accepted or recorded.
Two requests were submitted for Vancouver-False Creek, where Liberal incumbent Sam Sullivan, with 9,332 votes, was elected by 560 votes ahead of New Democrat Morgane Oger (8,772 votes). Oger’s request for a recount was denied, but Elections B.C. said it accepted a request from B.C. Citizens First Party candidate Phillip James Ryan because of evidence of discrepancies in counting.
An advance-voting ballot account showed 403 votes for one candidate, but the tally sheet and parcel envelope containing ballots for that candidate listed 399.
Recount requests for Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, Maple Ridge-Mission, and Richmond-Queensborough were refused.
After the final count is released on May 24, a judicial recount can be requested, with the deadline six days after the final count is completed.
— With a file from the Times Colonist
