Ballot Count – for in-person voting

There are two in-person voting opportunities for most electors: Advance voting, held the week before Election Day, and on Election Day. Some electors may have mobile voting opportunities as residents or in-patients at facilities like extended and continuing care facilities, treatment facilities, and emergency shelters.

Once voting closes, election officers convert voting places to counting places by storing voting materials and setting up counting materials. In some cases, ballot boxes will be sealed, inventoried, and prepared for secure transportation, with tracking information, to a central counting location in an electoral division. This occurs if the voting location is not available for the full length of the count or large enough to accommodate the count.

Each counting location has several people in attendance. You can learn more about what each of these roles does by visiting Positions and clicking on the title of the roles you would like to view.

• A Count Supervisor is the most senior official at the count and is responsible for supervising all election staff and activities occurring during the count.
• A Count Coordinator is responsible for assisting and overseeing Counting Teams during the count. They are also responsible for managing any scrutineers present.
• A Counting Officer is responsible for completing the unofficial count for the ballot box they are assigned. They interpret ballots, count, ballots, place ballots in respective envelopes and complete required paperwork. There are two Counting Officers on each Counting Team.
• The count process may be observed by scrutineers to ensure transparency.

Counting locations may have multiple counting teams, each responsible for a specific voting area.

Referendum ballots will be counted by question. Question 10 will be counted first, then Question 1, 2, and so on until all ballots have been counted. Results are reported by question as counts for that question are complete and reported to Returning Officers.

Counting Process

Each counting team has two counting officers.

1. Counting officers unseal the first ballot box for the voting area they will be counting and empty the contents. Scrutineers can ensure ballot boxes are empty.
2. The ballots are unfolded and stacked into piles.
3. One counting officer reads each ballot and calls out the vote on that ballot. The second counting officer records the votes on the tally sheet. There are multiple checks during this process to ensure the accuracy of the totals.
4. For the referendum, if there are any ballots from a different question in the ballot box, they are recorded and set aside and will be counted with or added to the total of the correct question.
5. During this process, errant ballots, spoiled ballots, and blank ballots are deposited into marked envelopes for separate counting.
6. Once all the votes from that ballot box have been counted, the tally sheet is completed.
7. The Count Coordinator reviews and signs completed statements of vote.
8. The Count Supervisor compiles the information from the unofficial count onto the Statement of Vote and reports results to the Returning Officer.
9. The Returning Officer reviews the results and the returning office staff enter the results into the results reporting system.
10. Results are posted on the unofficial results webpage as they are entered.