Elections Canada says 822 national special ballots cast by electors from 74 electoral districts "had mistakenly been kept at the office of the returning officer for Coquitlam–Port Coquitlam during the 45th general election." According to Elections Canada's table, Airdrie–Cochrane was among the ridings listed with one special ballot that was not returned to Elections Canada headquarters in time to be legally counted.
In a May 7 news release, the agency stated:
"The ballots should have been returned to Elections Canada headquarters by the deadline of April 28, 6 p.m. Eastern time in order for them to be legally counted, in accordance with the Canada Elections Act. We have shared with political parties the distribution of these ballots by electoral district. An initial analysis shows that the outcome would not be affected in any of the 74 districts."
The distribution list also included:
Port Moody–Coquitlam: 530
New Westminster–Burnaby–Maillardville: 33
Pitt Meadows–Maple Ridge: 26
Burnaby Central: 22
Other Alberta ridings listed were:
Calgary Heritage: 4
Calgary Confederation: 1
Calgary Crowfoot: 1
Calgary East: 1
Calgary Shepard: 2
Foothills: 1
Red Deer: 1
Elections Canada stated: "Our initial analysis also revealed that the issue was caused by human error and a failure to comply with the written procedures."
Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault said: "My commitment to candidates, political parties and Canadians is that when issues related to the delivery of an election arise, we take all necessary steps to resolve them."
Elections Canada stated: "The Chief Electoral Officer, Stéphane Perrault, has asked for a complete review of the controls in place to ensure that a similar situation does not happen again in future elections."
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