New Voting Processes

B.C.’s next provincial election is scheduled for Saturday, October 19, 2024. Changes to B.C.’s election legislation in 2019 and 2023 mean new voting processes and technology will be used to administer the election.

Networked laptops will be used to look up voters and cross them off the voters list, instead of paper lists. This reduces line-ups, makes the voting process more efficient and helps voters vote at any voting place.

Electronic tabulators will be used to count paper ballots. Tabulators are accurate, secure and efficient. They help us report results quickly on election night.

These changes mean that almost all ballots in the election will be counted on election night. In past BC elections, absentee and mail-in ballots could not be counted until final count, which took place about two weeks after election day. This delay was necessary to complete the manual, paper-based checks that were required to verify that the voters who cast these ballots were eligible to vote and that they had only voted once. The new voting process and the networked laptops allow us to perform these integrity checks much faster—almost in real-time. This means that around 98% of all ballots, including absentee and mail-in ballots, will be counted on election night.

The new voting processes also help us provide better service to voters voting outside of their electoral district as well as voters with disabilities.

If you vote at a voting place outside of your electoral district, we will print a ballot for you listing the candidates from your district. The tabulator will count your ballot when you cast it, and your vote will be included in the results reported on election night. Previously these ballots were not counted until final count.

The technology provides new services for voters with sight loss and other forms of disability. An Accessible Voting System will be available in every district electoral office. Voters will have the option to listen to an audio recording of the candidate list for their district and cast their vote by using a hand-held selector device, sip-and-puff straws or paddles. Voters using the system will be able to mark their ballot independently, and be confident that their choice will be counted accurately.

Electronic tabulators

Elections BC will use electronic tabulators to count paper ballots in the 2024 Provincial General Election. Tabulators help us provide better service to voters by:

• Allowing voters to vote at any voting place
• Allowing Elections BC to report results faster on election night
• Allowing Elections BC to count almost all ballots on election night
• Improving accessibility
  • Tabulators notify voters if their ballot cannot be read, giving the voter the opportunity to make a correction
  • Tabulators support the Accessible Voting System in DEO offices

Tabulators are secure and they undergo rigorous testing before and after they are used.

• Tabulators are never connected to the internet, which prevents hacking.
• Physical access to tabulators is limited to election officials and controlled through a chain of custody process.
• Tabulators are tested before and after being used. These tests are observed by candidate and party representatives.
• Tabulators are not “voting machines.” They simply count voter-marked paper ballots and provide results on a paper results tape.
• Voter-marked paper ballots are the gold standard in election administration because a paper ballot cannot be “hacked.”
• All ballots are retained after they have been counted, which allows Elections BC to audit results or perform recounts.
• In close races, ballots are recounted by hand.

See the Guide to Voting and Counting for more information about how tabulators will be used in the 2024 Provincial Election.