B.C. Election: Here's how hand-counting of ballots will work

Two years ago, Elections B.C. used electronic machines to count votes for the first time and was happy with it. This year, with the snap election, the agency says there wasn’t enough time to prepare for a repeat.

The 890,000 cast in the 300 advance polling stations were tabulated by machines and are ready to be released when polls close on Saturday at 8 p.m.

But each paper ballot cast Saturday in the 2026 provincial election will be counted the time-tested method — that is, by hand.

Voters wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference in the voting booth because the ballots look the same and were filled out the same.

The difference may be evident by the rate at which results are finalized and released by Elections B.C. to the public.

Chief Electoral Officer Shipra Verma explained to Postmedia the “complex operational logistics” cited in an Election B.C. news release for going back to hand-counting.

Q: Why not machine counting this year if the electronic tabulation went well in 2024?

A: B.C. didn’t own the electronic tabulators used in 2024. It had rented them from Elections Ontario, but they weren’t available this year.

That meant finding a company to lease from.

“With the snap election, we had a short time period” and global supply chain issues made it difficult to secure the 3,000 tabulators needed.

And “we had to find the right technology and train the people to operate them.”

There just wasn’t enough time in the 32 days since the vote was called Sept. 22.

Even if Elections B.C. could have found enough machines, it needed more time than it had to train the 17,000 staff it hires to work between one and six days for an election, she said. It was able to train the advance polling station staff to operate the 600 machines in 300 locations, she said.

Q: Why doesn’t B.C. buy its own machines?

A: “Not only do you have to invest in them, you have to worry about storage and maintenance” and whether the technology won’t become obsolete before the next election. “There’s a lot more that goes into the decision besides money.”

Q: Is electronic ballot processing faster?

A: “Tabulators do have a speed to them,” said Verma.

Q: When will results from votes cast in advanced polls be released?

A: “Advanced voting is completed and the votes have been tabulated, and all those ballots are kept very safe and secure,” said Verma. They will be released once the polls close. “Not right at 8 p.m.,” but within the first hour.

Q: Can any of the advanced poll results or Saturday’s results be released earlier than 8 p.m. on Saturday?

A: “Absolutely not,” she said. Results cannot be released before polls close, by law.

Q: When will the results be finalized?

A: “Nov. 10,” two weeks after the election, she said. That is when mail-in ballots and those from voters who voted outside the area they were registered to vote in are added to the total.

Q: Who can be present during counting?

A: It is each party’s right to have a candidate with at least one scrutineer present during the hand-counts. Elections B.C.’s website says also present is the election official responsible for the ballot box (or tabulator for electronic voting) and at least one other election official. No other individuals may be present without permission of Verma, a district electoral officer or delegate, it said.

Q: How are ballots counted?

A: The election official unfolds each paper ballot one at a time and announces the name, according to Elections B.C. website. The assisting election official records the votes for each candidate on a tally sheet.

Ballots must be clearly marked in the circle for one candidate. “Valid marks include an x, check, shaded circle or any mark,” the website explains.

Ballots must be rejected if it is not an official ballot, it’s unmarked, it was marked in a way that could identify the voter or for more than one candidate, or if the voter’s intent is unclear.