The results of the British Columbia provincial election Saturday and the Saskatchewan election on Monday are expected to run into delays in getting results.
There were more than 700,000 requests for mail-in ballots in British Columbia for this election compared to about 6,500 requests in 2017. The province has 3.4 million registered voters.
Elections BC CEO Anton Boegman said the agency would have been ready with electronic voter books and tabulation machines to count the mail-in ballots in October 2021, the original date of the next election. Under current legislation, counting can't start until 13 days after the election, which is Saturday.
For those voting Saturday in British Columbia, polls are open from 8 am to 8 pm, Pacific Daylight Time.
2020 British Columbia election preview
2020 Saskatchewan election preview
Saskatchewan will have a smaller percentage of vote-by mail applications as compared to British Columbia. As of October 15, the province received nearly 63,000 vote-by mail applications with 817,000 registered voters.
The vote-by-mail ballots will be counted in Regina starting 2 days (Wednesday) after the election. The final voting results won't be known until November 7.
For those voting on Monday in Saskatchewan, polls are open 9 am to 8 pm, Central Standard Time.
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The New Brunswick election didn't have these delays. The province only had about 13,000 requests for mail-in ballots with 547,000 registered voters. Paul Harpell, a spokesman for Elections New Brunswick, said about 100 people typically vote by mail. Harpell noted that machines were able to tabulate the votes by late in the evening on election night.
Let's be patient about getting the results. The neighbours to the south should take that same advice. We will report on all these elections as the results are complete.
photo credit: Elections BC
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