A judicial recount in the hotly-contested B.C. riding of Port Moody–Coquitlam is over, and the Conservative candidate that eked out a narrow win on election night will retain the seat.
NDP candidate Bonita Zarrillo had requested the recount, after Elections Canada certified the vote count, showing she was just 153 votes behind Conservative Nelly Shin.
Elections Canada said the recount was “terminated on request” by the NDP candidate, and that the result is unchanged.
Zarillo said she requested the end to the recount upon discovering “administrative mistakes” after the first day of the recount. Elections Canada had previously said the count could take as long as four days.
“There was no reason to carry on once those were verified, and I was satisfied that the community had every vote counted,” she said.
The administrative errors amounted to issues in the way the ballots were being filed, she explained, rather than any problems with the ballots themselves.
Zarillo said she also felt bad for Elections Canada staff who had to go through the grueling process of counting and examining every ballot.
“It’s been a very long process for those who are working in Elections Canada — the volunteers, that sort of thing — and it was a very, very busy but full day,” she said.
“I just didn’t think it was appropriate to ask them to do it again the following day.”
Zarillo called for the recount after seeing the difference between her and Shin change between Election Night and the days that followed.
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