On May 7, Elections Canada informed all registered political parties that 822 national special ballots cast by electors from 74 electoral districts across Canada, including nine ballots from Vancouver Island ridings, had mistakenly been kept at the office of the returning officer for Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam during the federal election on April 28.
The ballots should have been returned to Elections Canada headquarters by the deadline of April 28, 6 p.m. Eastern time in order for them to be legally counted, in accordance with the Canada Elections Act.
Elections Canada said an initial analysis shows that the outcome would not be affected in any of the 74 districts.
“Our initial analysis also revealed that the issue was caused by human error and a failure to comply with the written procedures,” Elections Canada said.
“The Chief Electoral Officer, Stéphane Perrault, has asked for a complete review of the controls in place to ensure that a similar situation does not happen again in future elections.”
Perrault said her commitment to candidates, political parties and Canadians is that when issues related to the delivery of an election arise, Elections Canada will take all necessary steps to resolve them.
More than half, 530 of the ballots, came from Port Moody-Coquitlam, while five were from Nanaimo-Ladysmith, two were from Cowichan-Malahat-Langford, and two were from Saanich-Gulf Islands.
