Elections BC will begin counting absentee provincial election ballots on Friday

The process of counting absentee ballots in British Columbia's recent provincial election will begin Friday, says Elections BC.

Mail-in ballots were a hot topic, with more than 650,000 B.C. residents opting to cast their ballot by mail, far exceeding the average in past elections.

Most ridings in the province were decided on election night, but there are still a few that hang in the balance. One of those ridings is Vernon-Monashee, where only 180 votes separate Liberal incumbent Eric Foster and NDP challenger Harwinder Sandhu.

Foster has represented Vernon-Monashee for three terms. Sandhu, if she wins, could be the first NDP candidate the riding has seen since 1984.

"Every vote is important and every vote should be counted," Sandhu said on election night. "I am looking forward to the announcement of the complete results."

Elections BC says 8,581 ballots are yet to be counted in Vernon-Monashee – votes that will decide who will represent the area.

"It's a real nail-biter, lots of back and forth," said Foster on election night. "I feel bad about the provincial results, but this race is so close I'm by no means out of the woods."

Other ridings in the the Thompson-Okanagan are pretty much a safe bet, except for a couple in the South Okanagan.

Boundary-Similkameen NDP candidate Roly Russell was wary of accepting his called election night victory, deciding to wait to celebrate once all the ballots are counted. Russell is up by 1,849 votes, but the riding is still waiting on 5,127 mail-ins.

It's a similar story in the Penticton riding, where BC Liberal Dan Ashton is up 2,673 votes on the NDP's Toni Boot. Ashton was also wary about accepting victory, as the riding is still waiting on 9,072 mail-in ballots.

Kelowna-Lake Country saw the highest number of mail-in votes in the Thompson-Okanagan, with 9,015 ballots. Those ballots likely will not play much of a role in swaying the riding, as BC Liberal Norm Letnick is up by 5,149 votes.

Elections BC says the counting process will take at least three days, and that those numbers do not represent the final number of absentee and mail-in ballots that will be counted in each district, as all certification envelopes must be screened before being accepted for counting to ensure legislated requirements are met, and to prevent multiple voting.