Sandra Yeung Racco and Gila Martow have now squared off twice in four months in the race to provincial parliament in the Thornhill riding. After a nail-biting race on June 12, with the lead shifting repeatedly between incumbent Martow and local councillor Yeung Racco, an ecstatic Yeung Racco celebrated with friends, family and supporters following her declared win, nudging out Martow by 85 votes.
Only one day later, Elections Ontario announced that it was actually Martow who had won by that same margin and not Yeung Racco.
The result was chalked up to human error — specifically a data entry error, according to Elections Ontario. Their communications coordinator Andrew Willis says that, though these types of errors are common, rarely do they affect the outcome.
“It was obviously a disappointment to learn that Elections Ontario has reversed the result reported on election night,” said Yeung Racco.
But Yeung Racco says she doesn’t want to take any chances, which is why she has requested a judicial recount.
“Of 50,090 votes cast, the difference is less than 0.2 per cent of all votes,” said Yeung Racco. “When the results are as close as they were, it is imperative to ensure that every vote was counted properly.… We owe it to the voters of Thornhill [and] all candidates to determine the complete and accurate result.”
Martow downplayed any surprise at the snafu. “They’re very clear, Elections Ontario, on elections night, they say, ‘These are the numbers that we’ve got so far, but it’s not official,’” said Martow. “They always find mistakes. But usually mistakes, they don’t change the outcome.”
Now a judge has called for a recount of the ballots.
“[The Liberals are] worried that there’s something suspicious going on,” said Martow, who does not believe that the outcome will change. In Ontario’s history, the largest difference found after a recount occurred in 2008 in Kitchener-Waterloo, with a difference of less than 40 votes.
Post City will be updating this story on thornhillpost.com or richmondhillpost.com for up-to-the-minute results.