It’s Monday, April 28 — federal election day — and voters in Airdrie–Cochrane are casting their ballots. Across Canada, votes are counted manually under standardized federal rules designed to ensure accuracy, transparency and the secrecy of each voter’s choice.
Here’s what happens once the polls close tonight, how ballots are counted, and how official results are finalized.
When counting begins
Ballots cast at polling stations today will be counted after polls close at 7:30 p.m. local time.
Counting is conducted manually at each polling station by paid election workers in front of witnesses, typically candidate representatives.
Due to a high turnout during advance voting, some ballots cast at advance polls may be counted earlier.
Returning officers, with authorization from the Chief Electoral Officer, were permitted to start counting advance ballots up to two hours before polls close in certain ridings.
In all cases, no results are shared before local polls close.
Ballots cast by local special ballot — such as those mailed within the riding or submitted at a local Elections Canada office — are verified and counted after polls close.
Special ballots cast outside the riding — including votes from Canadian Armed Forces members, Canadians living abroad, incarcerated electors and others away from home — are counted separately at Elections Canada's facility in Ottawa.
Counting of these ballots can begin up to 14 days before election day if volume requires it, but results are never shared until after polls close.
How ballots are counted
Election day ballots are counted on-site at each polling station.
Advance poll ballots and local special ballots are counted at the Elections Canada office for each riding after election day verification is complete.
Ballots are manually counted by teams of election workers, with all results recorded on an official Statement of the Vote.
Two workers are assigned per count, with candidate or party representatives observing the process.
Elections Canada does not use automated ballot counting or tabulation machines.
Every vote is counted by hand to ensure both transparency and the strict protection of voter secrecy.
Ballots from outside the riding are counted at Elections Canada's Ottawa facility by trained special ballot officers, with party representatives allowed to observe.
When results are reported
Preliminary results are posted at elections.ca after polls close, and are updated continuously throughout the night as counts are completed.
Results are transmitted at the same time to a secure network serving major Canadian media outlets.
As ballots are counted at each polling station, results are phoned into the returning officer, where staff manually enter the data into Elections Canada's reporting system.
Because results are entered in real time by election workers, occasional errors, such as typos or misheard numbers, can occur.
These errors are corrected later through the formal validation process.
Advance poll results often appear later than election day results because more voters are assigned to each advance polling station, leading to larger result batches that take longer to process.
When an advance poll’s count is posted, a riding's vote totals may jump sharply in a single update.
Preliminary results are unofficial until formally validated after election day.
What about errors or close results?
Validation of preliminary results begins during the week following election day.
Each returning officer cross-references the Statement of the Vote from every polling station against the preliminary results entered on election night.
If discrepancies are found, the Statement of the Vote is used as the final authority, and corrections are made immediately.
In ridings where the margin of victory between the top two candidates is less than one one-thousandth of the total votes cast, an automatic judicial recount is triggered.
For example, in a riding where 40,000 votes were cast, a difference of 40 votes or fewer would automatically require a recount.
Candidates or electors may also apply for a judicial recount within four days of validation if they believe the count was improper.
Applications must be filed through the courts with a signed affidavit and a $250 deposit.
Judicial recounts are presided over by a judge, are conducted manually, and are open to observation by candidates and designated representatives.
Can the election be challenged?
If concerns remain beyond what a recount can address, candidates or electors may file an application to contest the election through the courts.
Applications must be submitted within 30 days of the validated results being published in the Canada Gazette or within 30 days of discovering new grounds for contesting.
A judge may annul an election result if there is evidence of irregularities, fraud, or illegal practices that affected the outcome.
However, no federal election in Canadian history has ever been overturned through a contested election.
When are final results published?
Validated results, reflecting any corrections made after election night, are posted on elections.ca during the week following election day.
These validated results are considered final unless changed by a recount or court challenge.
Detailed official voting results are published approximately six months after election day.
These records break down the number of votes cast at every individual polling station and by voting method — election day, advance polls, and special ballots.
The detailed results provide additional data on voter turnout, voting patterns, and comparisons with previous elections, and are available for public download and analysis.
All stages of the vote counting, reporting, validation and publication processes are open to observation by candidate representatives to ensure transparency and maintain public trust in the election outcome.
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