Liberals lose Quebec riding according to revised election results

OTTAWA — Liberals are back to 168 seats and the Bloc Québécois to 23, after the Bloc took back the Montreal-area riding of Terrebonne according to revised election results. Elections Canada published their validated riding results on Thursday, which show that Bloc incumbent Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné won 23,340 votes — 44 votes ahead of Liberal challenger Tatiana Auguste who got 23,296 votes. Preliminary numbers finalized on Tuesday showed that Auguste had initially won by 35 votes. Elections Canada explains on its website that because preliminary results are phoned in to the returning officer and that data is manually entered in the results system, some mistakes may happen at the reporting stage. For instance, staff could mishear some of the results being phoned in or make a typo when entering the results into the system. The validation process — during which the returning officer compares the official statements for each polling station with the results that were entered into the system on election night — typically happens within a week after election day. However, the suspense is not over in the riding of Terrebonne, as the close result means there will automatically be a judicial recount in the coming days. Usually, those happen when the difference between the number of votes cast for the candidate with the most votes and the candidate in second place is less than one one-thousandth of the valid votes cast in a riding. Anyone can also ask for a recount in a riding within four days after validation, provided that they have proof that an election officer incorrected counted or rejected ballots, or if there were other irregularities that may have affected the result of the vote. Monday’s election saw many close races across the country, and many of the results were called only on Tuesday afternoon after advance polls and special ballots were counted. Other razor-thin victories included the riding of Terra Nova—The Peninsulas in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the Liberal candidate won by 12 votes, and in Nunavut, where the NDP incumbent held onto her seat with 77 votes. National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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