New Westminster provincial election results finalized

NDP candidate Judy Darcy garnered nearly half the votes cast in New Westminster in the May 14 provincial election.

Elections B.C. released final voting results this week after counting absentee ballots. Darcy received 13,026 valid votes (48.70 per cent of the popular vote), followed by Liberal candidate Hector Bremner with 8,944 (33.44 per cent), Green candidate Terry Teather with 2,241 votes (8.38 per cent), B.C. Conservative candidate Paul Forseth with 1,307 votes (4.89 per cent), independent candidate James Crosty with 1,043 votes (3.90 per cent), and Libertarian candidate Lewis Dalhby with 189 votes (0.71 per cent).

Following the May 14 election, Elections B.C. officials sorted through the absentee ballots and sent them to ridings throughout B.C. where they were counted this week.

"You can vote anywhere in the entire province," said Vicki Bradbury, chief electoral officer for New Westminster.

The final count was a continuation of a process that's been underway for months before the election, including training 500 people to work the election in New Westminster, establishing voting places and planning for an enumeration that occurred in March.

"A lot goes on behind the scenes to make it all happen," Bradbury said. "It is a really good system."

One of the initiatives undertaken included outreach to ensure that people living in shelters and attending soup kitchens had the opportunity to vote.

"All the shelter and soup kitchens supported the enumeration. We go out to the locations," Bradbury said. "How many of them voted, I don't know. They registered. The soup kitchen and shelter did a great job. I was thrilled."

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Burger Heaven restaurant's burger polls are normally pretty accurate, but they were a bit off base for the 2013 provincial election.

During the campaign, diners could vote in the restaurant's burger poll. The final tally had the NDP Burger on top with 615 votes, followed by the Undecided/Independent Burger at 336, the Liberal Burger at 330, the Green Burger at 213 and the Conservative Burger at 83.