One vote turned out to be the difference-maker in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne.
The riding underwent a lengthy process where the seat flipped between the Liberals and Bloc Québécois before the official recount results were announced over the weekend.
On election night, the unofficial results showed that Liberal Tatiana Auguste had unseated Bloc incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné. The riding was later declared for Sinclair-Desgagné but then an official recount before a judge showed that Auguste had won by a single vote.
While the back and forth may seem confusing, Laura Stephenson, chair of the political science department at Western University, says it shows a “deliberate and careful” accountability process at work.
“It’s detailed, it’s rigorous, it’s careful. All of those things should tell you how seriously our rules and Elections Canada are taking the outcome of our elections,” she said.
Three other recounts are taking place. A recount in Terra Nova-The Peninsulas in Newfoundland and Labrador began Monday, another in Ontario’s Milton East-Halton Hills South will start Tuesday. Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore’s recount will start on May 20.
Here is how the judicial recount process works.
Election workers count every ballot by hand in front of witnesses — typically representatives of the competing candidates. They then report those numbers to Elections Canada’s headquarters, which are the unofficial results that voters see on election night.
In the days following, returning officers — Elections Canada employees who are responsible for an electoral district — go through a validation process to ensure that the numbers reported on election night are accurate. That validation process is different from an official recount.
“When you’re talking about hundreds of or thousands of polling locations and lots of results coming in, errors can happen. Whether it’s something gets misheard on the phone or somebody accidentally types in the wrong number on the keyboard,” Matthew McKenna, a spokesperson for Elections Canada, told CBC News before election day.
“The returning officer for each riding goes through the statements of the vote from every poll and makes sure that that’s checked against the records so that we can adjust for any little errors or mistakes.”
Unlike official recounts, the validation process happens in every riding. When results are extremely tight after the validation process, recounts are triggered.
A judicial recount will automatically be triggered if the number of votes separating the winner and a runner-up is less than 0.1 per cent of the total votes cast.
This was the case in Terrebonne, Terra Nova-The Peninsulas and Milton East-Halton Hills South.
In some cases, a recount can also be requested if someone believes that the ballot count was improperly carried out. Typically such requests are made by candidates, but any voter can ask for one. A person who requests a recount must do so in writing, provide their reasoning for the request and make a $250 deposit.
In Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, the Liberal candidate requested the recount. In making the request, Irek Kusmierczyk cited more than a dozen affidavits from scrutineers for his campaign who had witnessed ballots that they say were valid be rejected. A judge granted Kusmierczyk’s request for a recount last week.
All recounts are overseen by a judge, and a select few are allowed to take part in the proceedings. They include the returning officer, the candidates, the recount teams — each consisting of a handler, a recorder and one representative appointed by each candidate — legal counsel for each candidate, legal counsel for the chief electoral officer and two representatives per candidate who are not members of the recount team.
Holly Ann Garnett, a professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada, says the recount process can be quite rigorous.
“Essentially they’re going to go through all of the ballots and recount and make sure that the tally that they had on election night is the same as it is when they go through that recount,” she said.
Here’s how the automatic recount will work for Terra Nova-The Peninsulas
The recount teams can also review ballots that may have been rejected on election night and then decide if they should be counted.
A rejected ballot can be accepted during the recount process if the recount teams — which include representatives for each candidate — unanimously agree that the ballot should be reclassified.
But if there is a dispute among the recount team on whether a ballot should count or not, it will then be up to the judge to decide. The judge can hear arguments from both sides before making a decision.
Once the ballots are reviewed, the results are then announced.
Judicial recounts happen almost every election.
Two recounts occurred in 2021. A recount in Trois-Rivières confirmed that the Bloc candidate had won while another recount in Châteauguay-Lacolle flipped the seat to the Liberals after the Bloc candidate had initially been declared the winner.
Two other recounts were requested by candidates in 2021 but later dropped.
In 2019, three recounts were requested, but later withdrawn. Five were held in 2015 — an additional recount was requested and later dropped.
Stephenson says that while it can be lengthy — some recounts may take days — the process is meant to ensure that the will of voters is reflected in the results.
“We’re following [the] process and process is slow and deliberate and careful. And so I have a lot more faith in the electoral process because of that,” she said.
Even though recounts have happened — and even flipped seats — in the past, Stephenson says more attention is being placed on this election for a few reasons.
After the Terrebonne recount, the Liberals now have 170 seats — just two shy of a majority. Even if the Liberals are declared the winners in the remaining three recounts — which include two seats currently held by the Liberals and one by the Conservatives — they would still fall short of a majority.
Still, Stephenson said even having a party on the cusp of a majority is going to shine more of a spotlight on judicial recounts.
“[A recount] isn’t something that typically is going to make such a difference,” she said.
That the campaign shaped into a two-horse race is also a factor in the attention given to the close ridings, Stephenson said.
“We saw two very clear front-runners take the majority of the support. So, it’s almost like every little bit matters,” she said.
