Final election result in Winnipeg race between Morantz, Eyolfson might not be known for days: Elections Canada

It could be at least another day before voters in the west Winnipeg riding of Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley know who will represent them in Ottawa.

With local mail-in ballots still to be counted, Conservative Marty Morantz and LiberalDoug Eyolfson remained in a tight race Tuesday morning, with Morantz, the incumbent,ahead by a little more than 100 votes.

Marie-France Kenny, regional media advisor for Elections Canada, said each local electoral district counts its own mail-in ballots, and the process can take several hours.

"I don't know in any given electoral district what time they're starting, what time they're finishing, but we know it will take at least one, possibly two days before we get the final tally," she said.

There are three envelopes to open forevery mail-in ballot.

The first envelope has the elections office address on it, and a worker starts the process bymaking sure that is correct.

In that envelope is another envelope, withan identifying number, that the voter has signed and dated, declaring they havenot voted anywhere else and affirming their identity.

Inside that is a third, blank envelope, which contains the ballot.

Mail-in ballots cast by Manitobans living in other provinces or those living outside of Canada have already been counted. The ballots remaining to be counted are those cast by voters within their own riding.

A total of3,630 mail-in ballots were returned to Elections Canada for Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley, including3,107 by people living in the riding,454 from people living or travelling elsewhere in Canada, and 69 from people outside the country.

Without counting local mail-in ballots and people who registered to vote on election day, the preliminary estimated voter turnout in Manitoba was 56.18 per cent. The estimated preliminary vote tally for all of Canada is 58.44 per cent.

The official final voter turnout in the 2019 federal election was 64.3 per cent in Manitoba and 67 per cent nationally. In 2015, it was 67.9 per cent in Manitoba and 68.3 per cent nationally.

Final election result in Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley race still being counted

3 years ago

Duration 2:00

It could be at least another day before voters in the west Winnipeg riding of Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley know who will represent them in Ottawa. With local mail-in ballots still to be counted, Conservative Marty Morantz and Liberal Doug Eyolfson remained in a tight race.