No Electronic Tabulators at Election-Day Voting Places

Advance and district office ballots still counted by machine for early preliminary results

October 23 2026 - Optical-scan tabulators, sometimes called ballot scanners or vote-counting machines, will not be present at assigned voting places on Final Voting Day in British Columbia this year.

According to Elections BC, because of the short notice and logistics of the snap election, the agency has reverted to the traditional paper-book and hand-count method used in previous snap elections (including 2020).

Tabulators were still used to count ballots cast during advance voting and at district electoral offices. Those results will form the first preliminary numbers released on election night after polls close at 8 p.m.

On Final Voting Day, voters at their assigned voting places will mark a paper ballot and drop it into a secure ballot box.

After polls close, those ballots will be hand-counted by election officials at the voting places.

The system creates a paper trail that is retained for any later recounts or audits. All ballots, including those counted by tabulator and those counted by hand, remain paper.

Results reported on election night are preliminary.

Mail-in and remaining ballots (including most absentee ballots) will be counted during the final count scheduled for November 6–10.

The tabulators used for advance and district office voting are supplied by Canadian company Neuvote Systems Inc. under a multi-year leasing contract awarded after a competitive RFP. (In 2024, Elections BC used Dominion machines leased through Elections Ontario.)

No Electronic Tabulators at Election-Day Voting Places