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With mail-in ballots, Liberals down a seat; Greens face judicial recount

The B.C. election mail-in and absentee ballot count has resulted in the NDP taking a Liberal seat, and a seat that went to the Greens on election night will face a judicial recount.
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B.C. Premier-elect John Horgan leaves after a post-election news conference, in Vancouver, on Sunday, October 25, 2020. Elections BC had about 660,000 ballots to count and while a handful of ridings had been completed by last night, the results hadn't changed from election night. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The B.C. election mail-in and absentee ballot count has resulted in the NDP taking a Liberal seat, and a seat that went to the Greens on election night will face a judicial recount.

With mail-in ballots included in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, Liberal incumbent Jordan Sturdy has 9,216 votes, 41 ahead of Green Jeremy Valeriote’s 9,175.

Under the Election Act, a judicial recount must take place if the difference between the top two candidates is less than 1/500 of the total ballots considered at final count.

In West Vancouver-Sea to Sky, where the Green party had hoped to pick up its third seat, Elections B.C. said that threshold is 49.

Elections B.C. began counting about 660,000 mail-in and absentee ballots on Friday, 13 days after the Oct. 24 provincial election.

If Sturdy’s win in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky holds, the NDP would have 55 seats, the Liberals 28 and the Greens two, with two other ridings still undecided as the ballot counting continues into today.

Green Leader Sonia Furstenau said in a statement the party will await the official recount result. “Jeremy Valeriote is an excellent candidate and the close results in his riding show that the people of West Vancouver-Sea to Sky are hoping for a more sustainable and equitable future for their community,” Furstenau said. “Every election, more and more voters have chosen to vote Green — that is cause for celebration and we will continue to work with the community to come out strong next time.”

The count on Saturday confirmed the victory of NDP candidate Kelli Paddon in Chilliwack-Kent over incumbent Laurie Throness.

Throness started the campaign as a Liberal candidate but quit to run as an Independent after causing an uproar comparing free contraception programs to eugenics at an all-candidates meeting. Paddon won with 8,268 votes to Throness’s 6,964

Throness said in a message on Twitter that he called Paddon to congratulate her on her win and that his time in office was “an enormous privilege.” “It has been my life’s joy to serve the riding of Chilliwack-Kent for 7.5 years,” the message said.

In Abbotsford-Mission, the New Democrats took away what had been considered a safe Liberal seat.

The Liberal incumbent Simon Gibson was head in the riding on election night.

However, with the mail-in ballots included, New Democrat Pam Alexis finished with 10,364 votes to Gibson’s 9,620.

Alexis, who took a leave of absence as Mission’s mayor to run, thanked her volunteers and Gibson for his years of service in a statement on Twitter.

Liberal candidates have been elected in Abbotsford-Mission with more than 50 per cent of the votes since the riding was created for the 2009 election.

The counting continues in Richmond South Centre and Vernon-Monashee, the two remaining ridings that were too close to call on election night.

Elections B.C. spokesman Andrew Watson has said the agency hopes to complete the count in all ridings by Sunday but conceded that may not be feasible.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2020.