B.C.’s chief electoral officer pushes against ‘false narratives’ in 2024 vote

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s chief electoral officer has issued a report he says pushes back against “false narratives” about the 2024 provincial election, as the Opposition BC Conservatives continue to call for an independent review.

Anton Boegman said the Oct. 19 provincial election happened during a “much more challenging” information environment than previous elections.

“Our social media team detected many false online narratives that questioned the integrity of the process,” he said, adding that many of those posts came from outside of British Columbia, including Alberta and Ontario.

But Boegman said his office did not track from which part of the political spectrum the posts emerged.

He said the online misinformation “peaked” on Oct. 28 when Elections BC completed the final vote count, when “normally social media commentary peaks on election day.”

Boegman said the falsehoods included claims about many non-citizens voting, widespread multiple voting and extensive fraudulent use of mail-in voting.

But he said B.C. had “well-established and proven processes” to keep elections secure, adding that all voters must affirm their eligibility, including citizenship before registering and voting.

He said Elections BC received five complaints about non-Canadians potentially voting, and another 10 non-Canadians attempting to register to vote. “So that’s 15 out of 2.1 million voters that have voted,” he said, adding that his office was investigating the cases.

Officials prevent multiple voting by checking voters off lists, and people voting by mail must meet identity and integrity standards, he added.

Boegman acknowledged October’s election faced challenges and he accepted responsibility for human-caused errors including uncounted and unreported ballots that prompted a partial recount in the riding of Prince George-Mackenzie.

“Elections are messy, to use a word,” he said, and while all election officials receive training, they make mistakes.

“We saw that obviously in our election in the mistakes that were made. We were able to correct them … and we were transparent about that.”

Boegman said the errors did not affect the final results, with Premier David Eby’s NDP winning a single-seat majority, but B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad said a “number of errors” put the results in question.

“Now, the election process is what it is,” Rustad said. “We accept it obviously going forward, but this needs to change, and quite frankly, the truth of this needs to come out.”

Rustad added that he hoped a court case by Conservative candidate Honveer Singh Randhawa challenging the outcome in Surrey-Guildford would reveal some of the “too many loopholes” in the system.

Randhawa has challenged the 22-vote victory of New Democrat Garry Begg in Surrey-Guildford following a judicial recount in late 2024. Begg’s seat gave the NDP its razor-thin majority, but Randhawa has claimed various irregularities.

The B.C. Conservative Party is not taking part in the case.

Boegman’s report mentions the court challenge, noting B.C.’s Supreme Court has yet to hear Randhawa’s application to invalidate Begg’s election. Should the court rule in favour of Randhawa, a byelection would be held.

Boegman said he “does not want to presuppose” what is going to happen in court. “We will report on it, depending upon the outcome of that process and the findings from that process,” he said.

When asked about Rustad’s other claims, Boegman said that he “will leave the political discussion” to the politicians.

“I will stand by my assertion that the election … was an accessible election, that it was free, fair and secure.”

The report is the first volume in a series of reports into the Oct. 19 vote.

It says “administrative challenges” to the vote included the late withdrawal of the BC United party, extreme weather on voting day and human error.

In Prince George-Mackenzie, election officials failed to count a ballot box containing 861 advance votes on election night.

The report says the mistake was made after a single ballot was inserted into a box without being tabulated. The mistake was noted and election officials were instructed to reset the tabulator and re-insert all the ballots.

However, the report says the instructions were followed incorrectly, and while the retabulated box was counted, a second box containing other advance votes was not.

“Our review determined that while there were contributing factors, the mistakes were a result of election official errors,” the report says of the uncounted box and other errors.

It says contributing factors “included the complexity of our electoral model and the reliance on manual processes for key parts of results reporting, the shortened time between initial count and final count, and the delay in completing a quality assurance report at (Elections BC) HQ.”

“These factors were exacerbated by the long working hours and extreme weather event on final voting day,” it says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2025.

Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press