Two rejected ballots that didn’t clearly indicate a candidate were the subject of debate during the judicial recount of a hotly contested riding in Surrey.
BC held a provincial election on October 19, but NDP leader David Eby wasn’t asked to form government until October 28 because the race was so tight. Some ridings were so close that less than a couple dozen votes made the difference between winner and loser.
One of those ridings was Surrey-Guildford, where Garry Begg of the NDP beat BC Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa by just 22 votes.
That riding was so close it triggered a judicial recount. Now, a decision by BC Supreme Court judge Kevin Loo posted online this week reveals some of the arguments that took place amid the recount.
The political parties argued over two rejected ballots from the final count. The ballots did not clearly indicate a single candidate.
The voter for the first disputed ballot coloured in dark circles next to all candidates except Conservative candidate Randhawa — leaving that one white.
The BC Conservatives argued that ballots should be counted in their favour since the voter left Randhawa’s circle differently than the others. They argued the voter had intended to vote for Randhawa. They pointed to a previous case where a ballot was marked with Xs next to all candidates except for one with a check mark. In that case, the judge could clearly tell who the voter planned to vote for and admitted the ballot.
But the blank circle next to Randhawa’s name wasn’t so clear, and Justice Loo rejected the ballot.
The second disputed ballot contained marks for both Randhawa and NDP candidate Begg. The NDP argued the nature of the mark next to the Conservative candidate was that of hesitation.
The judge decided the ballot did not clearly indicate the voter’s intention and rejected it.
On Election Day, voters in BC are instructed to mark the circle next to only one candidate.
“Although I did so in person at the recount, I will take the further opportunity in these reasons to thank the candidates, counsel, Elections BC officials and staff, and representatives of the two contesting political parties for their participation in this very important part of our province’s democratic process,” Loo wrote in the decision.
According to Elections BC’s final count, the BC NDP will form a narrow majority government, with 47 seats to the BC Conservatives’ 44 seats. The Greens hold two seats.