Record number of votes in BC election, but it's still starkly narrow

Record number of votes in 2024 BC election upon completed initial count, but it's still starkly narrow

Elections BC voting place. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The initial count is in and the BC NDP remains narrowly in the lead ahead of the Conservative Party of BC.

As it stands at the time of writing, unchanged from the results at midnight, the BC NDP has 46 seats, the BC Conservative party has 45 seats, and the BC Green Party has two seats.

These seat allotments could still fluctuate depending on the final count later this month. In order to form a majority government, a party needs 47 seats. Currently, a minority government appears more likely.

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According to Elections BC’s completed initial count just before 3 pm Sunday, a total of 2,037,897 ballots have been cast, providing a preliminary voter turnout rate of 57.4% out of 3,550,017 registered voters, including those who registered while voting.

This includes an all-time record of 1,001,331 ballots cast during the 2024 advance voting period.

The 2024 election saw an all-time record of ballots cast, exceeding the previous record of 1,986,374 in the 2017 election, which had a turnout rate of 57.7%. The 2020 turnout rate was 53.9%.

It remains to be seen how Saturday’s torrential downpours impacted voting turnout, which resulted in localized flooding on some roads.

Elections BC initial count

Final count

The final count will be conducted by Elections BC from October 26 to 28, 2024. It is estimated about 49,000 ballots will be considered in the final count, including absentee ballots and mail-in-ballots received close to the return deadline.

“Most types of ballots are counted at initial count,” said Elections BC in a statement this afternoon, but added, “Some ballots cannot be counted until final count, because they require additional integrity checks to ensure the voter was eligible to vote and that they only voted once. Ballots counted at final count include mail-in ballots returned after the close of advance voting, and out-of-district ballots cast by voters at non-technology voting places.”

Additionally, the final count period will also include recounts of the ballots in the two ridings of Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Surrey City Centre, where the margins are exceptionally slim.

Currently, within Juan de Fuca-Malahat, the BC NDP’s Dana Lajeunesse leads the BC Conservatives’ Marina Sapozhnikov by just 23 votes. As well, the BC NDP’s Amna Shah leads the BC Conservatives’ Zeeshan Wahla by just 96 ballots in Surrey City Centre.

According to Elections BC rules, anything less than a 100-vote difference will trigger a recount in that riding and that could take weeks. A judicial recount, when the Supreme Court of BC is involved, could also be triggered if there is a tie vote or if the difference is less than 1/500th of the total ballots considered.

The winning candidates will be officially declared after the final count is complete.

A historic election

Conservative Party of BC leader John Rustad, BC NDP leader David Eby, and BC Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau (Website/Website/Facebook)

Either way, this was a historic election, with the meteoric rise of the BC Conservatives, filling in the vacuum of the BC United (BC Liberals). In the previous provincial election, the BC Conservatives received just 2% of the vote and won no seats. But it also made some controversial headlines throughout the 2024 campaign period.

It remains to be seen whether David Eby’s BC NDP or John Rustad’s BC Conservatives will form government to lead the 43rd parliament.

It is highly anticipated that the BC Green Party will have a major say in the legislature, similar to when John Horgan and Andrew Weaver formed a confidence and supply agreement — similar to the effect of a coalition government — to defeat Christy Clark’s BC Liberals party shortly after the 2017 election.

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