A judge has granted a recount for the Mushkegowuk-James Bay riding.
The official Elections Ontario results for the Feb. 27 Ontario election have NDP Guy Bourgouin with 3,610 votes and PC Dave Plourde with 3,602. The recount is on March 17.
“All ballots will be carefully reviewed and counted again in the presence of scrutineers and representatives from the involved parties,” said Dave Pearce, Elections Ontario media relations co-ordinator, in an email.
“The judge will certify the recount results to the returning officer unless a notice of appeal is filed within two days of the recount's completion.”
If no appeal is made, the returning officer will declare the candidate with the highest number of votes as the elected representative, Pearce said.
Elections Ontario will not provide any updates until after the two-day appeals window, he added.
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Under Ontario’s election rules, the process to ask for a recount is automatically triggered if the difference between the top two candidates is fewer than 25 votes. The recount must be held within 10 days of the judge hearing the application.
Although vote-counting equipment is used on election day, recounts are conducted manually.
Recounts in Ontario provincial elections are rare. Since 1975, there have been 17 recounts across eight elections, with only two occurring in Northern Ontario — in Cochrane North in 1981 and Thunder Bay-Atikokan in 2007.
On March 19, Premier Doug Ford and the executive council are being sworn in. The provincial legislature returns on Monday, April 14.