After 8pm on October 17: how Vancouver counts the vote, declares winners and handles a tie

The polls close at 8pm on Saturday, October 17, and results start to be posted after that. Those first numbers are provisional. The Vancouver Charter sets out what happens next, step by step, and it has a firm date for each step. Here is the full sequence, with the 2026 dates worked out.

Step 1: counting at each voting place

Voting places are open from 8am to 8pm on election day, according to the City's 2026 voter's guide. When they close, election officials open the ballot boxes and count.

The City of Vancouver counts ballots with tabulating machines that read the marks on each paper ballot, according to its open data notes. The Charter sets the rules around the machines:

• A presiding election official and at least one other official must be present for the count (section 96).
• Each candidate, and one representative per candidate at each counting location, is entitled to watch. Anyone else needs the presiding official's permission.
• A ballot box whose seals are broken is counted separately, with its own record (section 98).
• The presiding official personally handles every rejected ballot and every ballot someone objects to (section 97).

Each voting place records its totals on a form called a ballot account.

Step 2: preliminary results on election night

Section 106 lets the chief election officer announce preliminary results, adding up the ballot accounts as they arrive. These are the numbers you will see on the City's website and on news broadcasts on the night.

They can change. The Charter treats them as a first total, and the official count follows.

Step 3: the official result, by 4pm on October 21

Section 107 requires the chief election officer to determine the official result. Candidates are told when and where this happens and may attend. The chief election officer reviews the ballot accounts, and may recount some or all of the ballots and reverse decisions made at a voting place about which votes to accept.

Section 108 then sets a hard deadline: the result must be declared before 4pm on the fourth day after voting closes. For 2026, that is Wednesday, October 21.

The winners are simple to identify. For mayor, the candidate with the most valid votes wins. For council, Park Board and school board, the candidates with the most votes win, up to the number of seats. Nobody needs a majority.

Vancouver has had to correct a count before. The City's open data notes say the 2018 ballot, with 158 candidates, caused paper jams in counting machines at some voting places. The City recounted 57,000 ballots from 50 voting places, a figure it gives as approximate. Votes changed by small amounts at 39 locations. The final standings did not change.

Step 4: a recount window until October 26

After the official declaration, a judicial recount can be requested from the Provincial Court (section 110). Three groups can apply:

• any voter,
• a candidate, or a candidate's representative, and
• the chief election officer.

An applicant has to name one of three grounds: votes were wrongly accepted or ballots wrongly rejected; a ballot account records the wrong number of votes; or the final count added the votes up wrongly. The application needs a sworn statement of the facts.

The window runs from the official declaration to 9 days after voting closes, which is Monday, October 26, 2026. The recount itself must be finished by the end of 13 days after voting closes: Friday, October 30.

The court's result is final and cannot be appealed (section 112). The court can also decide who pays the costs, and it can take into account complaints it finds unfounded.

Step 5: taking office

Section 109 says nobody declared elected can take the oath of office until the recount window has closed. If a recount is underway, the candidate waits for it to finish and confirm the result.

What happens in a tie

A tie is more likely than it sounds in the council race, where 56 candidates compete for 10 seats and the 10th and 11th place finishers can end up close together. The Charter handles a tie in three stages:

1. The chief election officer cannot declare a winner and must refer the race to a judicial recount (sections 108(3) and 110(5)).
2. A judge recounts the ballots.
3. If the tie remains, section 114 calls for a runoff election on a Saturday no later than 50 days after the recount. The candidates are the unsuccessful candidates who do not withdraw. No new nominations are allowed.

There is one alternative. Section 113 lets Council pass a by-law that settles a tie by drawing a name instead. The names are written on identical folded papers, shaken in a container, and one is drawn by a person who is not a candidate. Whether Vancouver's current election by-law uses this option is something we have not been able to confirm from the City's own text, so we have left it out.

What to watch on the night

• Close council races. The gap between 10th and 11th place is the one most likely to move between the preliminary and official counts.
• Mail ballots. A completed mail ballot counts if the City receives it by 8pm on October 17. Our vote by mail guide has the details.
• The ballot questions. Results for the three borrowing questions and the two plebiscite questions arrive the same night. Their wording is on our ballot questions page.

If you have not voted yet, find your voting place and read our guide to marking the Vancouver ballot.