Validated count widens margin of victory for federal Conservatives in west Winnipeg

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This article was published 27/09/2021 (1138 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – The federal Liberal candidate in a tight election race in west Winnipeg has conceded defeat.

Unofficial election results from Sept. 20 were very close in Charleswood-St. James-Headingley-Assiniboia, with just 24 votes between Conservative Marty Morantz and Liberal Doug Eyolfson.

That would be close enough to prompt an automatic recount under federal law.

But a recently completed validated vote count, which involves a returning officer reviewing the addition of votes at each poll, has given Morantz the win by a wider margin of 460 votes.

“The purpose of the validation is for the returning officer to identify and correct errors in arithmetic, typos, data-entry errors and other issues affecting the count,” Elections Canada spokesperson Natasha Gauthier wrote in an email Tuesday.

“Validation happens in front of observers from the candidates and/or parties, and is a normal and important part of the democratic process. It is very common to see changes in the count following validation.”

One error caught in the validation process was a transcription error that involved results written out by hand, Gauthier added.

Eyolfson said he’s very proud of the campaign he ran and is returning to work as an emergency physician.

“Though we didn’t get the results we were hoping for, I’m very proud of the campaign we ran. I had a fantastic team around me who left no stone unturned and I have no regrets,” Eyolfson wrote on social media.

Eyolfson won the seat in 2015 but was beaten by Morantz in 2019.

With Morantz’s victory confirmed, none of Manitoba’s 14 House of Commons seats changed hands in the election. Every seat saw an incumbent reelected.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2021.