Inside Canada's election recount process: What voters should know

Toronto Star

14-05-2025

One vote.
That's what ultimately separated the Liberals from the Bloc Québécois in the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne after a judicial recount.
On election night, April 28, unofficial results showed Liberal Tatiana Auguste defeating Bloc incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné by 35 votes. But after a required postelection validation process, Sinclair-Desgagné took the lead by 44 votes — triggering an automatic judicial recount due to the narrow margin.
The recount process wrapped up on May 10, confirming Auguste as the winner.
Her victory gave the Liberals 170 seats in the House of Commons — just two short of the 172 needed for a majority government — and ended weeks of back-and-forth in the riding.
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However, what may have looked like results swinging between the two candidates is actually evidence of a 'rigorous' democratic process, said Randy Besco, a political science professor at the University of Toronto.
'Sometimes people describe this as the result changing — that's not correct,' he said. 'The result is the result. There's only one. It's just that now we know for sure what the correct one is.'
Following the final result in Terrebonne, three more judicial recounts are underway. One began Monday in Newfoundland and Labrador's Terra Nova—The Peninsulas riding. Another is in progress in Ontario's Milton East—Halton Hills South. A third, in Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, is scheduled to begin May 20.
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Here's what to know about the official recount process.
How are recounts triggered?
In the days following an election, Elections Canada officials validate the preliminary results by checking if the correct number of ballots were counted and reported accurately. This validation takes place in every riding, no matter how close the race is.
Errors can be made in the initial reporting, Elections Canada said in an email, because results are phoned in to the returning officer.
'The staff at the returning officer's office could mishear one of the results being phoned in or make a typo when entering the reported result into the system,' Matthew McKenna, a spokesperson for Elections Canada said. 'The validation process exists because these sorts of errors can happen.'
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If the margin between the top two candidates is less than one one-thousandth of all valid votes, a judicial recount is automatically triggered. However, a judicial recount can also be requested by any voter — typically by the losing candidate.
In this case, they must first notify the returning officer in writing, then file a request with a judge. They then also need to provide evidence supporting their claim and pay a $250 deposit.
Irek Kusmierczyk, the Liberal incumbent in Windsor—Tecumseh—Lakeshore, lost to his Conservative rival by just 77 votes in the federal election, but was granted a judicial recount after submitting a request.
'The bar is fairly low,' Besco said. 'But judges don't always agree.'
How does the 'rigorous' process work?
A recount can be done in three ways: by the judge totalling up the reported results from each voting location, recounting only properly marked ballots or recounting all ballots, including rejected, spoiled or unused ones. The judge then totals the ballots cast for each candidate, depending on the chosen procedure.
A ballot is spoiled if it's damaged or filled out incorrectly and replaced before being cast. A rejected ballot is submitted but not counted because it's improperly marked or the voter's intent is unclear.
The judge oversees the recount, though Besco said it's mostly Elections Canada staff counting the tens of thousands of ballots.
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'They might have like ten or twenty teams of people with the ballots out on tables in a big room, and they just count them off,' he said.
At any point, the judge can end the recount if the person who requested it submits a written withdrawal — unless it's an automatic recount, which must proceed.
As Elections Canada staff tear off part of each ballot during the election to collect a receipt, they know how many votes were cast. During a recount, they ensure the number of ballots matches the original count.
'What they're looking for usually is math errors,' Besco said. 'They have to make sure they actually haven't missed any.'
Another key part of a recount, Besco said, is reviewing whether ballots were marked correctly. Recount teams examine any ballots rejected or spoiled on election night, and everyone present — returning officer, candidates, two candidate reps not on the recount team, legal counsel for the candidates and the chief electoral officer — must unanimously agree for one to be counted.
If they can't agree, the judge — who can hear reasoning from both parties — makes the final decision on whether the ballot should count.
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'There is a little bit of judgment there,' Besco said. 'That's why sometimes the number of votes is slightly different.'
How often do recounts happen?
Judicial recounts aren't 'unusual,' Besco said — a few will typically occur after every federal election.
In 2021, there were two recounts. One flipped the result in Châteauguay–Lacolle to the Liberals, while the other confirmed the Bloc Québécois win in Trois-Rivières. Two additional recounts were requested but later withdrawn.
'Two-to-four recounts is pretty standard,' Besco said. 'If you keep rolling a dice, eventually you're going to get a one, and eventually we're going to get a very close riding.'
Why are recounts important?
For Besco, recounts are a crucial device to ensure the 'right winner.'
'We need to be sure that the people who are elected are actually the people that won,' he said. 'It's also important that everybody knows and sees that it is correct.'
Despite the Liberals inching closer to a majority, they'll be shy of 172 seats if they win all remaining recounts. Two of the seats are already Liberal-held, with Kusmierczyk the only candidate trying to flip one.
Still, Besco said the thorough, robust and, sometimes, drawn-out process is key to maintaining trust in the election's outcome.
'I think Canadians have a lot of faith in our elections,' he said, 'and that's a great thing about Canada.'