Just 110 votes separated Conservative Alex Nuttall and Liberal candidate Brian Tamblyn in the riding of Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte by the end of the federal election.
On Monday night, a nervous Nuttall told CTV News prior to winning, he wasn't surprised to see the race so close. But on Tuesday, both men were still stunned by how close it was.
“One hundred and 10 votes is a very close margin,” says Nuttall.
“At certain parts we were ahead, certain points we were behind. So it was yeah, it was nerve racking,” says Brian Tamblyn.
Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte was the closest race in the province. The returning officer for the riding says a verification process will be held on Wednesday.
That process will confirm everything was inputted and checked correctly. Once that's done, the ballots will be sent to Elections Canada.
As far as the possibility of a recount, that can't happen until the verification process is complete and the returning officer says a recount is only ordered if the results are within a certain vote count, 1/1000th. In this specific case, it would be about 50 votes.
Despite that, Tamblyn says he has been told by the Liberal Party itself will decide in the coming days if it plans to ask for a recount.
“It's close enough that you know we feel we're hopeful that it will be able to be recounted and make sure that everything’s accurate and I think that's in everybody's best interests,” says Tamblyn.
Even if the Liberal Party asks for a recount, a judge would have to grant permission.
One thing both candidates were happy to see was the amount of people that voted. Turnout in the riding was just over 67 per cent.
The returning officer says the verification process will start at 10 a.m. sharp on Wednesday. It will take a couple of hours to do and each party is allowed to have one representative present during the process.
