Dale Boyd
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The projected winner of the Boundary Similkameen riding is now officially heading to Victoria following the final count of absentee ballots over the weekend.
Russell was projected to win handily by the Canadian Press on election night, leading by about 11 points with nearly 75 per cent of the vote counted. Following the final tally, Russell claimed almost 50 per cent of the vote in Boundary Similkameen (49.85 per cent) with 10,500 of the riding’s 21,063 votes.
Oliver town Coun. Petra Veintimilla remained the runner-up following the final count with 37 per cent of the vote, and Conservative candidate Darryl Seres, one of the most successful candidates in his party in the 2020 election, drew in 11 per cent of the vote. Wexit BC candidate Arlyn Greig, who reportedly parted ways with the party prior to Election Day, recieved 2 per cent of the vote.
The final count of roughly 660,000 ballots came weeks after Election Day, confirming 57 of 87 seats for the NDP majority. New Democrats proved victorious in four races that were left too close to call on election night — including Vernon-Monashee, the longtime Liberal riding which voted in NDP candidate Harwinder Sandhu.
Voting results for each electoral district by party and candidate are available on the Elections BC website at results.elections.bc.ca.
Following the conclusion of final count, a candidate is declared elected in each electoral district and the District Electoral Officer returns the writ of election to the Chief Electoral Officer. The Chief Electoral Officer then reports the candidate elected to the Clerk of the House, formally ending the 42nd election.
Source: Elections BC
