Canada’s Federal Election Results Could Take Longer This Year & You Can Blame The Pandemic

The final results of Canada's federal election may not be known for several days after polling stations close, Elections Canada says.

The election on September 20 was called during the COVID-19 pandemic and it's the volume of special ballots and mail-in ballots that may cause extra delays to results in some ridings.

However, Elections Canada wants Canadians to know there's nothing suspicious about any delays should they arise.

In a statement to Narcity, a spokesperson said, "In some ridings, preliminary results may not be known for several days following the election. This is due to the volume of special ballots and mail-in ballots that we have to count and the integrity controls that have to be completed first.

"Because of the interest, we have published a daily tracker that shows how many special ballots are being requested. The deadline to apply for a special ballot is September 14 so we should have a good idea after that how many of the mail-in or dropped off ballots will need to be counted."

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau called the snap election on August 15. The federal leaders running to become Canada's next prime minister are Trudeau, Erin O'Toole, Jagmeet Singh, Annamie Paul, Maxime Bernier and Yves-François Blanchet.