ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — With busy work-at-home lives and young children to home school in lockdown, Susan Green and her spouse scrambled the last day to register for mail-in ballots in the provincial election, with no luck.
Not only was the St. John’s couple left out in the voting cold, so were Green's parents, seniors who are computer savvy and tried to register.
“And we were trying several times that evening on the computer over and over and over,” Green said, adding the message back from the Elections Newfoundland and Labrador website was repeatedly “server unavailable.”
“None of us are voting. We like to vote.”
Green has been voting without interruption for more than 20 years, even while living out of the province.
She’s in the district of St. John's East-Quidi Vidi.
“It’s very disappointing,” Green said.
She has helped on political campaigns before and remains tuned in to issues that affect the province.
It’s the first time since Green came of voting age that her voice will not be counted provincially, nor will those three others in her family.
“I do have some empathy for Mr. (Liberal Leader Andrew) Furey. I think he was basing his decision on the information he had at the time,” she said of the election being called in mid-January.
But in-person voting was called off by Elections NL because of a COVID-19 outbreak that sent electoral workers quitting in droves and the province into lockdown.
“None of us are voting. We like to vote.” — Susan Green
When Green heard Elections NL had moved a deadline yet again late Monday, she hoped that meant she and others left hanging would get another chance to register for their kits.
However, that new deadline is only for those who were already waiting on, or have received, their mail-in voting kits.
Those completed ballots must be received by Elections NL by March 25.
It was the latest change of deadlines in an election called during a long lull in new COVID-19 cases.
A week before the Feb. 13 election day, however, cases began to skyrocket. First, in-person voting was called off for St John's and nearby districts, and subsequently cancelled altogether across the province.
Barb Sweet is The Telegram's senior reporter. [email protected] | Twitter: @BarbSweetTweets
