Over 800 special ballots mistakenly kept in B.C. riding, Elections Canada says

More than 800 special ballots cast during the recent federal election were mistakenly kept at the office of a returning officer in B.C., Elections Canada said.

The agency said all registered political parties have been informed that 822 special ballots cast by electors in 74 electoral districts across the country were left with the returning officer in the riding of Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam.

Elections Canada said the ballots should have been returned to its headquarters by April 28 at 6 p.m. to allow them to be counted.

Special ballots include votes made by mail and those cast in person at an Elections Canada office.

Over 500 of the ballots mistakenly left in Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam were for the electoral district of Port Moody-Coquitlam.

Others were for ridings across the country, including Halifax, Nepean and Vancouver Centre.

Elections Canada said an initial analysis shows that the outcomes in those 74 districts were not affected by the mislaid ballots.

In Port Moody-Coquitlam, the Liberal Party's Zoe Royer was projected elected with 27,074 votes, beating Conservative candidate Paul Lambert, who had 25,126 votes.

The agency said its initial analysis showed that the problem was caused by "human error" and "a failure to comply with the written procedures."

Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault has asked for a complete review of the controls in place to ensure that a similar situation does not happen again, Elections Canada said.

"My commitment to candidates, political parties and Canadians is that when issues related to the delivery of an election arise, we take all necessary steps to resolve them," Perrault said in a news release.

'A validation of the validation process'

Stewart Prest, UBC political scientist, said human errors are inevitable and this instance shows why a multi-step validation process is important. 

He takes solace in the fact that Elections Canada is quick to announce and correct mistakes when they are made. 

"It is a validation of the validation process," said Prest. 

"Elections Canada being upfront about the mistakes when they are caught and correcting them is the best we can do to address those." 

He said it's important for the organization to examine how this mistake was made and how it was caught to help identify gaps and prevent future errors.