In his first report on the 2024 provincial election, B.C. Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman said while there was some human error, it was ultimately “free, fair and secure.”
Meanwhile, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad continued to question the validity of results, pointing to what he says is a laundry list of voting irregularities.
“Elections BC, quite frankly, is failing in the work that they're doing in British Columbia,” he told reporters on Tuesday (May 27), just before the report was released.
The 2024 election was the first to feature certain new technologies provincewide, such as voting tabulators and electronic voting books that allow people to easily vote in a riding other than their own and have their vote transferred over. It is also the first in which the chief electoral officer has the power to force social media companies to remove certain malicious misinformation.
This is the first report by Elections BC on how this roll-out went.
But Rustad said misplaced ballot boxes, alleged non-citizens trying to vote and a court case related to the ultra-close NDP victory in Surrey—Guildford, all show that Elections BC did a poor job administering the election.
“The problem is there's too much room for potential manipulation or potential errors, and Elections BC is not doing the work that's needed to be done to catch this,” Rustad said.
Boegman shot back at some of these claims.
“I'd encourage people to make sure that they verify their facts, and that people can speak factually about what transpired during the election,” Boegman said upon hearing the content of Rustad’s comments.
The report details voter registration, candidate nominations, voting opportunities, ballot counting and voter turnout. It also discusses the “false narratives” that emerged on social media during the election and while counting was underway.
This includes the allegations that many non-citizens voted, that there was widespread multiple voting, that there was extensive fraudulent use of vote-by-mail, and that ballot boxes were stored at the homes of senior election officials.
“The reality is that B.C. has well-established and proven processes to keep our elections secure,” Boegman said.
He did concede that there were errors during the election, but said elections are “messy” in a “citizen democracy” and mistakes are bound to happen.
“All election agencies hire people from communities to serve their fellow citizens in administering the election,” he said. “And while all election officials are given training at times, they do make mistakes.”
Elections BC found evidence of 15 non-citizens attempting to register to vote or voting. Investigations of these are underway, but Boegman pointed out that this is a small number overall.
“That's 15 out of 2.1 million voters,” he said.
Rustad wants an independent audit of the election and new rules to be introduced requiring voters to present provincial ID cards bearing a “C” for citizen that shows eligibility.
Boegman panned that idea, saying it would make things easier for election officials, but could create barriers for people unable to easily obtain certain types of ID, such as a driver’s licence.
Facing natural and man-made problems
The report goes over much of the work Elections BC did to use the new regulations to counter misinformation. Boegman said about 40 social media posts were flagged, with 10 being actively looked at and one resulting in a takedown order. The social media company involved voluntarily complied with that order.
But Boegman said that these takedown powers weren’t fully implemented, and he would have liked to see them tested better to find out how to improve
Elections BC was also faced with external factors such as an atmospheric river that caused the closure of some voting places. Others had sandbags at the doors and power outages.
“We had election officials conducting their count using the light of their cell phone battery because they had no power,” he said.
Boegman said Elections BC was able to overcome these challenges because of the ability of people to vote at any voting place and the option to vote by phone.
“We're very fortunate in B.C. that our voting model is very accessible,” he said.
