Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.
That’s what happened in a handful of B.C. ridings Tuesday evening, where the margin between Liberal and NDP candidates came in at under 1,000 votes – close enough for the possibility of recounts.
According to Elections B.C., recounts can be ordered by the District Electoral Officer, or requested by a candidate’s official agent. Recount requests must be made in writing no later than three days after election day.
The requested recounts are then conducted by the District Electoral Officer during the final count, which is when absentee ballots are also counted.
“A recount may only be requested if the difference between the top two candidates is 100 votes or fewer, or if there is a belief that errors were made in the acceptance or rejection of ballots,” according to Elections B.C. guidelines.
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The NDP’s Ronna-Rae Leonard has tentatively won Courtenay-Comox.
However, in the event of a tie vote or if the difference between the first two candidates is less than 1/500 of the total ballots counted, the District Electoral Officer must apply to the Supreme Court of B.C. for a judicial recount.
Those applications must be made within six days following the declaration of official results following the wrap of the final count.
While most were separated by at least 100 votes or more, one riding came down to a single digit.
In Courtenay-Comox, a difference of nine votes separated the NDP’s Ronna-Rae Leonard and the Liberals’ Jim Benninger. Leonard won the riding with 10,058 votes, while Benninger had 10,049. The Greens’ Ernie Sellentin came third with 4,907.
In Maple Ridge-Mission, Bob D’Eith won for the NDP with 9,843 votes, while the Liberals’ Marc Dalton took home 9,723 votes, a difference of 120.
The Liberals won Coquitlam-Burke Mountain after Joan Isaacs took 9,514 votes, just 170 votes more than the NDP’s Jodie Wickens, who took 9,344 votes.
Another riding that appeared to be a close race early in the evening was Vancouver-False Creek but in the end, Liberal incumbent Sam Sullivan ran away with the vote, taking 9,329 votes, a 559 difference over the NDP’s Morgane Oger’s 8,770.
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