Provincial election ballots for the Maple Ridge-Mission riding came from the printer with a mark in the circle beside the name for Liberal incumbent Marc Dalton.
But the NDP candidate in the riding is confident it isn’t an issue.
“Elections B.C. dealt with the matter immediately,” said Bob D’Eith. “I have no reason to believe it will impact the results in any way.”
The mark on the ballots was detected by Elections B.C. before voting occurred.
“We received printed ballots before advanced voting, noticed a small black dot in one of the circles for one of the candidates,” said Andrew Watson of Elections B.C.
He called it a “technical misprint” and the printer re-printed the ballots.
Elections B.C. later saw a Tweet from a resident who said her father had voted in Maple Ridge, and there was a mark on his ballot.
Elections B.C. reached out to the person to ensure them that they were aware of the misprinted ballots, but if one was to slip through the cracks, election officials have all been made aware of the small black dot.
D’Eith accepted the fault was a printing mistake, and in no way deliberate.
“These things happen,” he said.
All candidates and parties were made aware of the situation.
If someone does notice a marking on their ballot when they go to vote, Watson said they should bring the ballot back up to the Elections B.C. officials, and they will be issued a new ballot. Officials will then spoil the marked up ballot.
He also said this hasn’t happened anywhere else in this election, and did not happen in the last election to his knowledge.
– with files by Ashley Wadhwani of Black Press.