Every ballot deserves an accounting.

Start with the documented numbers.

Sources: City preliminary results and statement of votes cast.

2022 vs. 2026: Two different voting trends.

Citywide ballot counts rose, while ballots cast at polling locations physically in James Bay fell. Mail voting also accounted for a smaller share of all ballots.

Read this carefully: The 2022 James Bay total combines Community School (1,682) and New Horizons (1,387). The 2026 total is Community School (2,064), with New Horizons not used as an election-day polling location. These figures are polling-place counts, not James Bay residents’ turnout. Voters could use other locations and voting methods. The change does not establish that votes were lost.

Sources: 2022 statement of votes cast · 2026 preliminary statement of votes cast. Confirm historical counts against the original City documents before external publication.

Where did polling-place ballot counts change?

These comparisons group selected polling places by their geographic area. They do not measure turnout by residents of those neighbourhoods: voters could cast ballots elsewhere, and several voting locations changed between elections.

What should be explained? Why did some polling locations record fewer ballots even as citywide participation increased? How did closures, new voting locations, advance voting and the James Bay connectivity disruption affect where voters cast their ballots? No number in this chart establishes how many eligible voters were unable to vote.

The Fairfield & Gonzales grouping is provisional and requires verification against both original precinct reports before public release. Other figures are transcribed from the earlier comparison and should also be cross-checked. Sources: 2022 votes cast · 2026 preliminary votes cast.

Mail voters chose differently.

These bars show the percentage of voters selecting each candidate, comparing mail ballots with all other voting methods. This is not the percentage of each candidate's total votes cast by mail. Voters could select up to eight councillors.

The bars are derived from candidate mail counts and total votes in the City's preliminary statement. The 29,274 other voters equal 31,281 total minus 2,007 mail ballots. Candidates are ordered by preliminary overall rank.

Two documented trouble spots.

Important: These disruptions are documented. The number of voters who were unable to cast a counted ballot because of either disruption has not been established here. James Bay's incident is not evidence of a neighbourhood-specific voting outcome.

How James Bay voted.

At James Bay Community School, 2,064 ballots were cast. This chart ranks the 12 leading council candidates by votes at that location. The dashed dividing line marks the eighth-place cutoff at this polling place, not the citywide election result.

Source: City of Victoria preliminary statement of votes cast. These are ballots cast at the James Bay Community School polling place, not a measure of all James Bay residents. The connectivity issue does not establish how any voters unable to vote would have voted.

Could additional mail votes affect the ranking?

Enter a number of hypothetical additional ballots (starting at zero). The model applies the same candidate support rates as the mail ballots already counted. It does not estimate how many ballots were actually lost.

Assumptions: candidate-specific rates stay unchanged; added votes rounded independently; no adjustment for replacements, in-person voting, or changed preferences. A scenario is not an election result.

Five questions for the City.

1. How many original and replacement mail-ballot packages were issued?
2. How many were received and accepted by the October 17 deadline?
3. How many applicants voted in person or with a replacement ballot?
4. How many completed ballots arrived after the deadline?
5. How many mail-ballot applicants did not ultimately cast a counted vote, and is there an incident report for the James Bay disruption?

For ballot handling and polling-site questions, contact the City of Victoria Elections Office first. The provincial local-government office can receive governance concerns. Elections BC primarily regulates local election advertising and campaign financing; it does not administer the City's vote count.

Sources and methodology.

1. City of Victoria: 2022 statement of votes cast · historical polling-place and mail-ballot comparison
2. City of Victoria: Preliminary statement of votes cast · candidate totals and mail-ballot results
3. City of Victoria: Preliminary election results (October 17) · turnout and elected positions
4. City of Victoria: Canada Post mail-ballot delay notice · disruption and voting options
5. City of Victoria: Elections and Referendums · October 17 James Bay connectivity update
6. Times Colonist: Mail-ballot return options · contemporaneous reporting

Data notes: Mail support = candidate mail votes ÷ 2,007. Other-voter support = (candidate total votes − candidate mail votes) ÷ (31,281 − 2,007). The percentages are selection rates, not shares that add to 100%. 2022 comparisons use the linked historical statement; the 2026 count is preliminary. Changes in voting-site availability limit neighbourhood comparisons.