With 41 of 55 election night polling locations reporting, the Canadian Press has called the election in Cariboo North.
Incumbent B.C. Liberal Coralee Oakes is the preliminary leader in the riding, with Elections BC showing she has 48.91 per cent of the recorded vote, as of 10:03 p.m.
The NDP’s Scott Elliott has 30 per cent of the reported vote.
Conservative candidate Kyle Townsend has 13.21 per cent of the vote, while the Greens’ Douglas Gook has 7.21 per cent.
No advance polling or mail-in ballots, which could total over 6,000 votes, have been counted yet. Oakes has an 855-vote lead. If she retains this lead until mail-in votes are counted, Elliott would need to win seven of every 10 mail-in ballots to make up the difference.
Results reported tonight are preliminary results, as due to the pandemic, more British Columbians have decided to vote by mail-in ballot than ever before. Election results won’t be finalized until after Nov. 6., after those mail-in ballots are counted. An estimated 2,000 mail-in ballots were requested by Elections BC within the Cariboo North riding. There are 21,960 registered voters in the region.
Across B.C., a total of 497,900 mail-in ballots were returned to Election BC, as of Friday, Oct. 23.
There are roughly 3.5 million registered voters in the province.
B.C. VOTES 2020: Polls close in Quesnel
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