The provincial election results in the riding of Thornhill have been changed from a Liberal victory to a Progressive Conservative triumph, Elections Ontario has confirmed.

Initial results from the June 12 election awarded the victory to Liberal candidate Sandra Yeung Racco by a razor-thin, 85-vote margin. However, officials now say incumbent MPP Gila Martow, a PC candidate, actually won the vote.

Martow, who won the Thornhill riding in a close byelection race against Yeung Racco in February, said she learned she would be returning to Queen's Park on Friday, one day after a general election that saw the Ontario Liberals handed a majority government.

"My campaign manager was at Elections Ontario yesterday with the Liberal campaign manager and they were given the official word, but I guess it took a while for Elections Ontario to put out a press release," Martow told CP24 in a telephone interview on Saturday.

The former optometrist took over the Thornhill riding after ex-PC MPP Peter Shurman announced his resignation late last year amid a spending controversy. Martow said she is "looking forward to again advocating on behalf of the issues here in Thornhill."

Thursday’s election-night error was discovered during vote tabulation and appears to have been a data transposition error, according to a statement from Elections Ontario.

"Official Tabulation is a regular process that occurs in every electoral district," the statement said. "At the conclusion of the Official Tabulation, each Returning Officer declares the candidate with the most votes to be elected."

"As a result of the Official Tabulation, the Returning Officer for the Electoral District of Thornhill has declared that Gila Martow, the candidate for the PC Party of Ontario, has obtained the most votes."

Judicial recount

In light of the new election results for the Thornhill riding, Yeung Racco has requested a judicial recount.

"The voters of Thornhill deserve to know that their votes counted and their will is reflected in the result," Yeung Racco, who is a city councillor in Vaughan, Ont., said in a statement released on Saturday. "For that reason, my campaign will be requesting a judicial recount, to ensure the accuracy of the result."

She added that the Ontario Liberals were "alarmed" by the number "transposition and minor clerical errors."

"When the results are as a closed as they were, it is imperative that every vote was counted properly," she said.

According to officials, both Racco and Martow were present for the official Thornhill count on Friday, after which Martow was declared the winner -- again by an 85-vote margin.

The unofficial vote count put Racco at 21,837 votes, ahead of Martow’s 21,752. The official count showed 21,783 for Racco – a transposition of the final three numbers – and 21,868 for Martow

Election night results are unofficial but media outlets are free to report them, a representative from Elections Ontario said. Actual votes, including rejected and declined ballots, are tabulated in the days after the election to confirm the accuracy of initial reports.

With the change, the Ontario Liberals still hold a majority of seats at Queen’s Park, but their initial 59 seats have dropped to 58. Outgoing PC Leader Tim Hudak’s party gets a bump, from 27 seats to 28.

Official tabulated results from every riding in the provincial election will be made public on Wednesday, June 18.

With files from CP24