If official election results processed by an electronic tabulation system, at which level results are entered into an electronic tabulation system?

Canada, Elections Act (S.C. 2000, c. 9) last amended on 2019-06-13, accessed 23 October 2019

Appointment of returning of‚cers Nomination des directeurs du scrutin

24 (1) The Chief Electoral Officer shall appoint a returning officer for each electoral district in accordance with the process established under subsection (1.1) and may only remove him or her in accordance with the procedure established under that subsection. […]

Canada, Safeguards for counting votes and reporting on results, accessed 24 October 2019

“Counting votes by hand

- When voting time is over, trained and paid election workers count the ballots by hand, following strict procedures that are compliant with the Canada Elections Act.

     - Votes are not counted by tabulator machines

- Candidates, representatives, or other designated observers are allowed to watch the counting of the votes.

- Before the count, election workers close the doors of the voting place. No one is allowed to enter or leave.

- Election workers follow all the steps outlined in their counting procedures:

     - With many people watching, they unfold each ballot and say aloud the names marked on each ballot.

     - Staff tally up the votes, record the tallies on paper, and report the totals to the returning officer, i.e. the official who manages the election for that electoral district.

- The returning officer records the vote counts in a computer program that securely sends the information to Elections Canada's main office.”

Shortly after the polls close on election day, the preliminary results begin to come in to Elections Canada. Unofficial results are phoned into the returning office from the polling station, where they are entered into a computer program and published live on the Elections Canada website.