Nearly 800,000 votes are already cast. But B.C. may still not have a winner on election night

More British Columbians have cast their ballots ahead of Election Day than ever before.

About 725,000 registered voters had requested a mail-in ballot as of Monday night, according to the latest numbers from Elections BC on Tuesday. About half of those ballots, or 304,500, have already been returned.

Meanwhile, about 472,350 ballots have already been cast at advance polls.

1:22 New poll shows B.C. election race getting tighter

But even with nearly 800,000 votes already in the bag, experts say B.C. may still not be able to announce a winner come Oct. 24.

“At the moment, we don’t have a good sense of how it is going to go,” Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley, said.

“It is going to take a long time to count and we won’t necessarily know the results of the election on election night as we are typically used to.”

Ballots from advanced polls are counted at the same time as the general polls.

But officials don’t start to count mail-in-ballots until at least 13 days after, as a prevention measure against people trying to vote twice — both by mail and in person.

1:48 Decision BC: Battleground Vancouver

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it means that a winner in any close races may not be declared until after the mail-in votes are recorded.

And the overall number of seats is close, voters will go to sleep on election night without knowing who will serve as the next premier.

2:29 Advanced polls open across British Columbia

As of Tuesday, 3,485,858 people were registered to vote in B.C.

Voters can still register at polling stations if they meet certain criteria.

They are now being encouraged to return mail-in ballots directly to an Elections BC office or polling station, instead of via the post office, because there is not enough time to guarantee they will arrive in time.

3:25 Mailing it in. How voters will cast their ballots in the B.C. election

The estimated number of returned packages does not include those received by Canada Post that are still in transit to Elections BC, nor does it include packages dropped off at a district electoral office or voting place. Mail-in ballots must be received by Oct. 24.

“It is a really dramatic increase over the mail-in ballots from past elections,” Elections BC spokesperson Andrew Watson said.

“In 2017, we had about 6,500 voters voting by mail.”

The number of mail-in ballots will be especially important in the tight races.

Incumbent Andrew Weaver, the former leader of the BC Green Party, is not running again in Oak Bay-Gordon Head on Vancouver Island. There, 37.6 per cent of registered voters have requested a vote-by-mail package. That’s the highest percentage so far among swing ridings.

In Saanich North and the Islands, where each of the three major parties have won in as many past elections, 32 per cent of registered voters have asked for a mail-in ballot.

And in Vancouver-False Creek, the fifth closest race overall in 2017 that ultimately went to BC Liberal incumbent Sam Sullivan, it’s 27.9 per cent.

The remaining advance polls are open Tuesday and Wednesday across the province from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. PT.