Once election day is over, the voters have gone home, and the polls have closed, what happens next?
1) The ballot box is opened by poll officials and the ballots are counted and recorded as one of the following:
- 'valid' (properly marked),
- 'unmarked' (no mark on the ballot), or
- 'rejected' (declared invalid because of improper marking).
Ballots will not be counted again unless a judge orders a Judicial Recount.
2) The Deputy Returning Officer at each poll completes a Ballot Statement of the Poll and places all ballots and voting supplies into a special envelope to be returned to the electoral district Returning Officer.
3) The ballot count is telephoned to the Returning Officer, who gives the count information to media in his or her office so that voters and candidates may get early, unofficial results of the election.
4) When Returning Officers have received the envelopes from all the Deputy Returning Officers in the electoral district (usually one to two days), they total the vote from the Ballot Statement of the Poll for each poll. This is the Returning Officer's Official Tabulation of the vote.
5) Seven days after this count, if there is no recount ordered by a judge, the Returning Officers advise the Chief Electoral Officer of the name of the winning candidate in their electoral district. The Chief Electoral Officer prepares the official list of elected candidates.
6) Once the official list is published in the Ontario Gazette, the newly elected MPPs are sworn into office and the Premier calls the new Legislative Assembly to Queen's Park for its first sitting.