Here comes the conversation about election integrity
Despite close races and delayed decisions, we got through the B.C. election with questions about the integrity of vote counting largely being limited to the sidelines of social media. From the parties themselves — NDP, Conservatives, and Greens — there were reassurances that the process was open and fair, and despite being just a hair away from becoming premier, John Rustad accepted the NDP win as legitimate, writing:
I accept the results of this election. I thank our Elections BC workers for their hard and dedicated work.
While there are still judicial recounts to be completed, it's now clear that our party will not win enough seats to form government in BC.
This afternoon Elections BC is applying for a judicial recount for one ballot box in the Prince George-Mackenzie (PRM) electoral district, after discovering that votes from that ballot box were not counted or reported on election night. The ballot box contains approximately 861 votes and will not affect the outcome of the election in PRM.
When they say those 861 votes will not affect the outcome of the election, they aren’t kidding. That’s the riding Kiel Giddens won by more than 5,000 votes, receiving 60 per cent support and being the first projected winner on election night. But 861 votes would have been enough to sway the results in several other, much closer ridings, and obviously Elections B.C. would like to address this. In part, the fact this conversation is even happening is actually because they are already paying such close attention — this recount and a few other, smaller ones, were triggered as part of a five-day review Elections B.C. undertook to discover, preemptively, if any mistakes were made in their counting. As they write:
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. These steps are critical to ensure all votes are accurately counted and reported prior to the end of the election period.
Elections B.C. is having a press conference later today to answer more questions about this and, as I write this, the Conservatives do have questions (though, I should emphasize, they are still very much accepting of the overall election outcome). Here’s Rustad again:
Elections BC has revealed that a ballot box containing 861 votes went entirely uncounted, along with 14 unreported votes in Surrey-Guildford—a crucial riding 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.
This is an unprecedented failure by the very institution responsible for ensuring the fairness and accuracy of our elections.
At a time when confidence in election integrity is more fragile than ever before, British Columbians deserve assurance that every vote counts and that these errors are corrected.
This is why I’m calling for an independent review to ensure that these types of mistakes never happen again. Democracy is too sacred to allow trust to erode to the lows we see today.
Oh, did you know the U.S. election was today? Anyways.
Putting on the Brixx
Yesterday I mentioned social posts for a new restaurant opening in town and saying I couldn’t tell where it might be. In the comments, Sylvia points out: “The Brixx website said they are only located in Prestige hotels so one of the locations will be getting it.” If' it’s going to the former Treasure Cove hotel, as others responded, this would be at least the third and maybe more restaurant to be in that location in the last decade.
News roundup:
The city says only 14 people are still living in Moccasin Flats (the city has not exactly always been accurate in its counts, but anecdotally, there are fewer people there).
Prince George experiences seasonal October; November to begin above-average.
Cougars to give out Ravensbergen bobbleheads during Teddy Bear Toss weekend.
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Send feedback by emailing northerncapitalnews@gmail.com. Find me online at akurjata.ca.
Also notable from the awards was 3 Goblins Games. They won business of the year and they've only been open about 1.5 years! That's a downtown success story if ever there was one. That business has single handedly brought me downtown far more than any other, not close.
Rustad: " ...it’s clear that mistakes like these severely undermine public trust in our electoral process."
While misplacing an electoral polling box is a problem (I mean, I was like, "what?? Don't they have a checklist or something to make sure they got all the boxes?"), I am going with Elections BC and human error, learning from it and ensuring there are improvements to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. I mean, this is why we have the recounts and judicial counts: to make sure all the votes are counted.
However, I think it is the era of rage politics thanks to our monkey brains leaning into emotions and negativity, (un)intentional algorithms on the socials that monetize for these negative clicks, influencers taking advantage of those algorithms, and foreign (and internal) state actors funding some (much?) of it in backhanded and illegal ways, that cast so much more doubt in what has been a rigorous, resilient electoral process for decades.
(also, sarcastic thanks to certain folks in the US of A for just proving this point)