British Columbians have overwhelmingly chosen to keep the first past the post voting system over switching to proportional representation.

Province-wide referendum results released by Elections BC's Chief Electoral Officer Thursday afternoon show that just over 61 per cent of those who mailed in their ballots supported the current system.

According to the results, 38.7 per cent of those who voted were in favour of switching to proportional representation.

More than 1.4 million, or 42.6 per cent of the province's 3.3 million registered voters submitted their ballots by the Dec. 7 deadline, Anton Boegman told reporters in Victoria.

That means more than 845,000 voted for FPTP, while just 533,500 said they wanted to change the way they vote.

According to Beogman, 2,461 ballots were rejected because they "had no valid response for either question 1 or question 2."

Finance Minister Carole James told reporters that while the referendum didn't go her party's way, the NDP made good on its campaign promise to give British Columbians a say in deciding how they elect their MLAs.

"Are we disappointed? Yes, there's no question. But we committed the public a chance to have a say on how they voted and they had their say and that was important to us," she said.

Those remarks were echoed by the Greens, who stood to gain a substantial number of seats in the legislature under the new system.

"Obviously, the BC Greens are disappointed with the results, but the people of British Columbia have spoken and we respect the results," party leader Andrew Weaver said after the results were made public. "We'll continue to do what we can to improve the democracy in this place."

The NDP and Greens joined forces after the previous provincial election to topple the BC Liberals—a party that had been in power for 16 years.

On Monday, Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson—who has been a strong voice against proportional representation ever since the topic was first brought up by the NDP—said the results of the referendum should put an end to the conversation around electoral reform.

"The citizens of B.C. have spoken three times very clearly that they do not want to change their voting system," he told reporters.

But results from previous referendums would suggest that isn't quite so clear.

In 2005, nearly 58 per cent of voters said they were in favour or switching to single transferrable vote system on the recommendation of the Citizens' Assembly of Electoral Reform. The change was not adopted, however, because it failed to meet the 60 per cent threshold set in the referendum.

Four years later, 60.9 per cent of voters chose to keep FPTP instead of switching to pro rep. The results of that referendum are similar to the most recent, although voter turnout was much higher in 2009 at 55 per cent.

Starting in October, B.C. voters were asked to answer two questions, starting with whether the province should keep its current system or switch to proportional representation.

British Columbians were then asked to rank three versions of the proportional representation: mixed-member, dual member and rural-urban.

According to Election BC's results, MMP was the most popular option among those who favoured pro rep and received more than 41 per cent of their votes. DMP and RUP each got about 29 per cent.

Fifteen out of the province's 87 electoral districts vote in favour of proportional representation.

In general, these were urban ridings that included Victoria-Beacon Hill, Vancouver-West End, New Westminster and Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, where a whopping 74 per cent said they wanted to switch to pro rep. Suburban and rural areas, on the other hand, tended to favour the status quo.

This interactive map shows how each electoral district voted in the referendum.

Boegman said it's too early to determine the final cost of the referendum, but Elections BC believes it will come in under the budgeted $14.5 million.

A full report on the referendum and its results will be available in the spring that will include a demographic breakdown of the results.

"It's been an intense time period for our office," Boegman said, adding that he's confident in the legitimacy of the results. "Overall, if I look back on the administration of the event, I'm very pleased with the efforts of Elections BC."

Boegman said the referendum was carried in a similar way to previous vote-by-mail events, but gave Elections BC the chance to pilot some new technologies, including high-speed tabulators.

Voters had until the afternoon of Dec. 7 to submit their ballots, after the original Nov. 31 deadline was extended due to rotating Canada Post strikes that caused shipping delays.

Along the way, electoral reform became a source of heated political contention, with the "yes" and "no" sides both being accused of using exaggerations in a bid to sway public opinion.

Premier John Horgan and Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson also squared off in a Nov. 8 debate in an effort to drum up support for their respective sides.

The highlight of the televised back-and-forth seems to have been an unusual moment during which Horgan told his opponent, "If you were woke, you'd know pro rep is lit," in an apparent attempt to appeal to a younger audience.

Despite their disappointment with the results, neither the Greens nor the NDP seemed eager to revisit the topic of electoral reform anytime soon.

"I think the message clearly right now is that British Columbians do not want another referendum on this topic in the near future," Weaver said, but did not rule out the idea of another attempt at changing the system "well into the future."

Detailed results are available on the Elections BC website.

With files from CTV Vancouver's Jon Woodward

Voting results for the 2018 Referendum on Electoral Reform are now available https://t.co/e5OfKTOzkS — Elections BC (@ElectionsBC) December 20, 2018

I hear that 61.3 per cent supported first past the post system -- so -- status quo. https://t.co/9QRqVAUzos — Jon Woodward (@ctv_jon) December 20, 2018

#BREAKING: British Columbians have chosen to keep the first past the post voting system over switching to proportional representation. Watch live here: https://t.co/vLluwwXyV5 pic.twitter.com/UhJoFKaj1N — CTV Vancouver (@CTVVancouver) December 20, 2018