Elections BC begins its final official tally of votes

Counting is underway as Elections BC begins its final, official tally of votes following last month's provincial election.

The independent agency says the count began this morning, is expected to take at least three days, and will include the more than 660,000 absentee and mail-in ballots submitted up to the October 24th vote.

Not all of those ballots may be added to the final tally as officials say some might be excluded if problems are found once the certification envelopes are opened.

Elections BC says the final count will be followed by a six-day window to permit judicial recounts of any close races, but it's hoped the results of the election, which has given a preliminary victory to Premier John Horgan's New Democrats, can be declared official by November 16th.