Elections Canada is reporting an issue with some special ballots, including a handful for the Northern BC ridings.
According to Elections Canada, 822 national special ballots cast from 74 electoral districts had been mistakenly kept at the office of the returning officer for Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam during the election.
The ballots were supposed to have been returned to Elections Canada by the April 28th, 6 PM Eastern Time deadline for them to be legally counted in accordance with the Canada Elections Act.
All registered political parties were informed of the issue yesterday. (Wednesday)
Elections Canada said the initial analysis shows the outcome would not have had an impact in any of the 74 districts.
They say initial analysis also revealed the issue was caused by human error and a failure to comply with written procedures.
Chief Electoral Officer, Stéphane Perrault, has asked for a complete review of the controls in place to ensure a similar situation does not happen again.
“My commitment to candidates, political parties and Canadians is that when issues related to the delivery of an election arise, we take all necessary steps to resolve them,” she said.
Of the 822 ballots, five were from Skeena-Bulkley Valley, three were from Cariboo-Prince George, and one was from Prince George-Peace River Northern Rockies.
The list of ridings affected can be found here.
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