When can election results be expected? Here’s how votes are counted and announced

Polls are set to close across B.C. at 7 p.m. Monday, as voters decide who will form the next government.

After weeks of campaigning by federal party leaders, voters across the country will have their say Monday in who should be chosen to form the next government.

Following the closure of B.C.’s polls at 7 p.m. PDT, Elections Canada staff will open the province’s ballot boxes to count, by hand, the accumulated votes.

Despite the ushering in of electronic tabulators to accelerate the vote counting process, Elections Canada still uses paper ballots. The process involves the election officer inspecting the vote and reading aloud the name that’s marked on it, while being observed by the candidates or their representatives.

Elections Canada spokesperson James Hale said the decision to opt for a more analog approach stands because hand counting and paper ballots is a “really efficient” system.

“Those results are recorded on a paper document that is called a statement of the vote,” he said.

“The candidate’s representatives who are present, they get a copy of that. The totals of that statement of the vote are then entered into our results aggregation and reporting system.”

Once counted, the results will be posted onto the Elections Canada website before being announced by the media.

CTV News election producer Anton Koschany said an assortment of individuals will be working to ensure the results are announced correctly and on time, including statisticians, mathematicians and psephologists - those who study elections.

“We have a team of dedicated psephologists who basically look at the results as they come in, along with our election system, and analyze who’s going to win a riding,” he said.

The time it takes to determine the winner depends on how close the results are to the projected outcome in each riding, he said.

“If they match our expectations, then we start to make some election calls on the ridings and eventually call the government. But if they don’t match our expectations, then we have to wait, and things can change.”

For those who have already voted at advance polls, sealed ballot boxes containing their votes have been securely stored at local Elections Canada offices. Normally, those ballots may be counted up to an hour before polling stations close - but due to the record advance voting turnout this year, they will be counted two hours early in most ridings.

“It’s a very simple but complicated process at the same time, because it requires a lot of manpower,” said Hale.

Koschany said it may take some time to count the ballots, but the process is secure.

“It’s safe. We just have to wait for the results,” he said.

Elections Canada will begin counting votes immediately after polls close in each province, with the Maritimes count set to begin at 4:30 p.m. PST, followed by the Ontario and Quebec counts at 6:30 p.m., and B.C. from 7 p.m.