British Columbians could find out who wins the provincial election on Oct. 19 in about the same time it took to start counting ballots in previous votes. Andrew Watson, a spokesman for Elections BC, says new electronic vote tabulators mean officials hope to have the first results within 15 minutes of polls closing at 8 p.
m., half of the "preliminary results" reported within about 30 minutes, and for the count to be "substantially complete" within an hour. Watson says in previous general elections — where votes have been counted manually — they didn't start the tallies until about 45 minutes after polls closed.
This will be B.C.'s first general election using electronic tabulators after the system was tested in byelections in 2022 and 2023.
"The reason behind them is to provide better service to voters and to make the voting process more accessible," Watson said Thursday. Voters will still mark their choice of candidate on a paper ballot that will then be fed into the electronic counter, while networked laptops will be used to look up peoples' names and cross them off the voters list. Watson said the change from a paper voters list means people casting ballots won't have to stand at specific voting stations based on their names, and the process is expected to take an average of five minutes.
He said the electronic tabulator means voters will know right away if their ballot can't be read, something that wasn't possible under a manual system. "So we're hopeful that that will.