Another recount will commence.
Officials have confirmed to the Tri-City News a "partial judicial recount" is set to begin tomorrow (Oct. 27) to determine who wins the sixth and final seat on Port Moody city council for the next four years.
Incumbent candidate Amy Lubik also confirmed her financial agent, Neal Nicholson, filed the application in B.C. provincial court earlier today (Oct. 26).
Two votes currently have councillor-elect David Stuart in the position, according to the City of Port Moody's recount filed last Wednesday (Oct. 19) as the official results under the Local Government Act.
"We are doing a recount because of the margin and the number of irregularities in the machine recount," Lubik told the Tri-City News.
"We just want to be sure that the process was accurate."
The latest recount is set to be completed before the end of day Friday (Oct. 28) — per section 149 of the Local Government Act — and will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday at Port Moody city hall.
The alleged "irregularities" refer to specific polling stations cited in Lubik's file that are subject to the recount.
Port Moody chief election officer Philip Lo confirmed the two boxes at Kyle Centre (1) and Heritage Mountain Community Centre (1) are the ballot machines in question.
"At the conclusion of the proceedings, the Judge will declare elected the candidate who receives the highest number of votes in the judicial recount," Lo added.
Lubik was seeking a second term on city council in the 2022 municipal election, in which 36.3 per cent of Port Moody residents chose to cast their ballot — 8,989 out of 24,775 eligible voters.
As of this publication, the current councillors-elect are as follows, plus Lubik's ballots:
- Callan Morrison (4,740 votes)
- Diana Dilworth (4,101 votes)
- Samantha Agtarap (3,802 votes)
- Kyla Knowles (3,787 votes)
- Haven Lurbiecki (3,681 votes)
- David Stuart (3,595 votes)
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- Amy Lubik (3,593 votes)
Port Moody election officials involved in the first recount reviewed the preliminary results as counted by the 10 ballot machines used at each polling station, including votes cast on advance dates, through mail-in ballots and on general voting day.
They were then compared with paperwork submitted by all poll supervisors to check for any irregularities.
Though results were made "official" by local municipalities on Oct. 19, recount requests were still open for BC Provincial Court application by candidates, a candidate's representative or an eligible elector.
Friday is the deadline for any of the above to file such an application as it's nine days after the results were declared.
