The final count is in for Surrey-Cloverdale and Mike Starchuk has won the riding by more than 4,200 votes.
All remaining absentee and mail-in ballots for the riding were counted as of 4:13 p.m. Nov. 8, as reported by Elections BC.
Starchuk, NDP, received 12,992 votes (52.1 per cent), Marvin Hunt, BC Liberals, received 8,758 votes (35.12 per cent), Rebecca Smith, Green Party, received 2,169 votes (8.7 per cent), Aisha Rehana Bali, Conservative Party, received 867 votes (3.48 per cent), and Marcella Williams, Independent, received 149 votes (0.6 per cent).
The Surrey-Cloverdale seat was previously held by Hunt.
“I’m super happy with what’s transpired here,” Starchuk told the Cloverdale Reporter on election night. “I think the general trend will continue, but every vote counts,” Starchuk said of the pending mail-in ballot count. “We want to make sure those people … get their votes counted.”
SEE ALSO: All Provincial election results can be viewed here
The ballots counted Nov. 6-8 were in addition to ballots cast at a polling station either during advance voting or on election day Oct. 24.
The initial results were a “relative surprise,” Hunt told the Cloverdale Reporter Oct. 24. At the time, Hunt thought the high number of yet-to-be counted mail-in ballots could sway the vote.
Hunt added, if the early results were indicative of the final tally though, then “the people have spoken.”
SURREY SOUTH
In the Surrey South riding, MLA-elect Stephanie Cadieux finished with 12,970 votes (47.36 per cent) to NDP Pauline Greaves with 11,794 (43.06 per cent).
The Surrey South seat was previously held by Cadieux.
SEE ALSO: Mike Starchuk in comfortable lead in Surrey Cloverdale
“People put their lives on hold, essentially, to run in an election and put forward themselves for office and their views and their ideas for how to make our community and province stronger. I think it takes a great deal of courage to do it and it takes a great commitment,” Cadieux said.
SEE ALSO: Voter turnout down across Surrey-Cloverdale
Elections BC said in 2020 voter turnout decreased by about 10 per cent compared to the 2017 general election.
Voter turnout in Surrey-Cloverdale was down by nearly seven per cent from 2017. This year roughly 55.17 per cent of registered voters cast ballots (that number could go up slightly once spoiled ballots and voters that registered on election day are factored in). In 2017, 61.84 per cent of registered voters cast ballots. In 2017 there were 40,828 registered voters in the riding and in 2020 that number climbed to 45,193.
Voter turnout in Surrey South was down by nearly seven-and-a-half per cent from 2017. This year roughly 52.46 per cent of registered voters cast ballots (that number could also rise slightly when spoiled ballots and late-registered voters are factored in). In 2017, 59.91 per cent of registered voters cast ballots. In 2017 there were 44,615 registered voters in the riding and in 2020 that number climbed to 52,202.
In a one of the strangest campaigns during one of the strangest years in living memory, it was an election like no other.
Due to the pandemic, more British Columbians decided to vote by mail-in ballot than ever before.
More than 68,000 mail-in ballots were requested by Elections BC within the Surrey-area ridings. And across B.C., a total of 662,236 mail-in and absentee ballots were returned to Elections BC by Nov. 6.
—with files from Aaron Hinks.
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