Surrey- In a post on the social media platform X, John Rusted, leader of the Conservative Party of BC expressed his deep concern over ballot counting irregularities disclosed by Elections BC. According to Rusted’s statement, a ballot box containing 861 votes went uncounted, along with an additional 14 unreported votes in Surrey-Guildford, a pivotal riding in the recent election narrowly won by the NDP. “While I am not disputing the final outcome pending remaining judicial recounts, it’s clear that mistakes like these severely undermine public trust in our electoral process,” Rusted posted. “This is an unprecedented failure by the very institution responsible for ensuring the fairness and accuracy of our elections.” These revelations come as public confidence in election integrity is increasingly fragile. Rusted emphasized the urgency of addressing such mistakes to reassure voters that every ballot truly counts. He called for an independent review to investigate the oversight and prevent similar issues in future elections. “Democracy is too sacred to allow trust to erode to the lows we see today,” he added, stressing the importance of upholding transparency and accuracy in the democratic process.
Meanwhile,Elections BC says in a statement,
“The ballot box contains approximately 861 votes and will not affect the outcome of the election.”
“Our elections rely on the work of over 17,000 election officials from communities across the province. Unfortunately, unintentional human errors do occur in administering the vote. The use of Chief Electoral Officer Orders and the judicial recount process enables such errors to be corrected.” Election BC further stated.
Jaswinder Sandhu says
The ballots should be counted although it won’t affect the results.