Dramatic surge in Peace River North likely voter protest...
As Elections B.C. finalizes the count from Saturday's provincial election, initial results show an explosion of rejected ballots in one northern B.C. riding.
A total of 303 ballots were rejected in Peace River North, a Conservative stronghold that includes the City of Fort St. John, accounting for 2.82 per cent of all votes cast there.
That's a massive 1,583 per cent increase from the 18 ballots rejected in the riding in the 2024 election.
One has to go back 35 years to find numbers anywhere near this high, when 277 ballots were rejected in the 1991 election.
"It's a mistake or it is sending a message," said Jason Morris, a political science lecturer at the University of Northern British Columbia. Morris believes it's most likely the latter.
Peace River North (including the Northern Rockies) was the only riding where the NDP did not run a candidate. Neither did the Greens.
Left-leaning voters traditionally account for about 20 to 25 per cent of the vote in the riding.
But there were only two candidates on the ballot this election: Curtis Whitford for the B.C. Conservatives, and Jordan Kealy, a former B.C. Conservative who ran independently as the incumbent MLA.
"It's very likely that there were more [rejected] ballots that were political messages," said Morris.
"The voter was engaged, they were still participating and voter turnout will still be recorded. But they had perhaps felt that they wanted some other choices."
Whitford won the riding for the Conservatives as part of their sweep across B.C., beating Kealy by nearly 7,500 votes.
"Whether you voted for me or not, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be there to represent you, all of you," Whitford said during a victory speech at the Fort St. John Legion.
Province-wide, about 4,400 ballots were rejected, up slightly from 2024.
Ballots can be rejected for a number of reasons under the Election Act, including unclear markings, marks for more than one candidate, or write-ins for a political party not represented by a candidate.
Peace River North and Burnaby-New Westminster were the only ridings that saw more than 100 rejected ballots, according to initial results.
In Burnaby-New Westminster, rejected ballots jumped from 89 in 2024 to 482 in this election.
In that riding, Green candidate Greg DePaco withdrew before the start of advance voting, however, his name remained on the printed ballot.
An Elections B.C. spokesperson said any votes cast for a candidate who had withdrawn would have been considered rejected.
-with files from Matt Preprost CBC.ca
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