Early result error due to human error: Elections B.C

Finishing third in the Oak Bay-Gordon Head, behind the NDP and Conservatives, was disappointing but not unexpected for Green candidate Lisa Gunderson.

What was difficult was that the supporters congratulated her for days on her second place.

“It’s more a matter of how many times do I have to explain this to people,” said Gunderson, a psychologist and deputy leader of the BC Greens.

Supporters and friends texted, called her and stopped her on the street to congratulate her on defeating the Conservative candidate. She didn’t.

The final vote count on Monday showed NDP candidate Diana Gibson won a decisive victory in the contest, with 14,519 votes. BC Conservative candidate Stephen Andrew came second with 8,542 votes, and Gunderson third with 6,508.

However, on election night, with 27 of 29 polls, the Elections BC website incorrectly showed Gunderson with 8,035 votes – well behind Gibson, who had 13,154 votes at the time, but ahead of Andrew with 7,766.

It was broadcast live on television and Gunderson was interviewed about her performance based on that result.

For supporters who didn’t see the final score, or didn’t constantly check the Elections BC website, Gunderson appeared to be in second place for a while.

Although election night results are poll-by-poll and candidates may advance or stall at different times throughout the night, candidates’ vote totals generally do not decline.

Gunderson’s campaign team requested a recount, but the request was denied by Elections BC, which said there was no evidence that votes were not properly accepted or ballots were not properly rejected, that votes were not accurately recorded, or that equipment for counting votes did not work. process ballots accurately.

BC elections spokesperson Andrew Watson said Times settler in an email about the discrepancy in preliminary results in Oak Bay-Gordon Head “was due to a data entry error by the office staff member who entered the results and reported over the telephone.”

When the tabulated results tapes were returned to the county election office later on election night, “they were checked against the preliminary results reported in our system, which identified the error and made a correction,” said Watson.

Watson said it is a standard part of Elections BC’s “quality assurance process” to resolve these types of errors.

“Such a data entry error is not grounds for a recount under the Electoral Act,” he said.

Gunderson said she is under no illusion that a recount would change the results, but supported the campaign’s request for a recount to get a better explanation of what happened and prevent it from happening again.

She said she accepted it was a data entry error, said Elections BC was apologetic, explained it was human error and documented it.

B.C.’s political leaders, including Premier David Eby, Conservative Leader John Rustad and Green Leader Sonia Furstenau, as well as campaign managers and auditors, have publicly applauded the independent office of Elections BC for the way it is handling the voting, counting and recount processes has carried out.

Automatic judicial recounts will be held for the Kelowna Center and Surrey-Guildford ridings because the counting difference between the top two candidates is less than 1/500th of the total number of ballots.

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