Elections Canada vote validation hands Liberals another Ontario seat
After initially calling the riding of Milton East—Halton Hills South for the Conservatives, Elections Canada has now awarded the seat to the Liberals following a vote validation process.
Author: Noah Jarvis
After initially calling the riding of Milton East—Halton Hills South for the Conservatives, Elections Canada has now awarded the seat to the Liberals following a vote validation process.
Liberal Kristina Tesser Derksen is now slated to represent the Ontario riding as the next Member of Parliament by a margin of 29 votes. She received 32,130 votes, compared to 32,101 for the Conservatives’ Parm Gill.
This gives the Liberals a slightly stronger minority government, increasing their seat count in Parliament to 169 members and dragging the Conservatives down to 143.
Initially, the vote totals had Gill winning the riding with 32,186 votes–85 more than the final tally–while Derksen trailed with 31,888 votes, which is 242 fewer than the final tally.
Elections Canada’s data shows that 412 ballots were rejected, though it is not clear how many of these were included in the initial count.
Elections Canada told True North that the winner in Milton East—Halton Hills South changed after their validation process, which involves comparing the official statement of the vote from each polling station with the data entered into their system on election night.
The agency attributes the discrepancy to human error, citing the hectic nature of election night reporting, during which results from polling stations are phoned in.
The independent body says that election results from each polling station are reported to election officials by phone on election night, which can lead to election workers mishearing one another or mistakes in inputting the data.
“In other words, validation involves checking the official records from each individual polling station and correcting any errors made during the transmission of results on a busy election night,” an Elections Canada spokesperson told True North.
Elections Canada reports that the validation process was “transparent” and “open to scrutiny,” as the entire process was witnessed by the candidates or their representatives.
“Once the results are validated, they are final, unless changes are made following a judicial recount or a contested election proceeding,” said Elections Canada.
A similar validation process occurred in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne where the Liberals’ Tatiana Auguste was initially ahead of the Bloc Québécois’ Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné. However, after the vote validation process, Sinclair-Desgagné pulled out the victory, winning by only 44 votes.
Parliament is set to reconvene on May 26 for less than a month, after which MPs will go on a summer vacation until mid-September, barring a recall of Parliament by Prime Minister Mark Carney.