ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — The thin margin of victory for New Democrat Jordan Brown in Labrador West will be tested on June 19.
The judicial recount for Labrador West, triggered by the less-than-10 margin of victory, had a brief court appearance at Supreme Court on Tuesday morning to set a date for the recount.
Justice David Osborn will preside over the recount.
The recount will examine all 3,235 votes cast in the district in the May 16 election, one by one.
Lawyers Steve May for the Liberals, Lynn Moore for the New Democratic Party, Judy Manning for the Progressive Conservatives and Barry Fleming for Chief Electoral Officer Bruce Chaulk will examine the votes and argue over those that should or should not be counted.
Chaulk says Elections NL has counted the votes twice to get its final number.
“I would expect no difference. What should be there is what was actually counted,” said Chaulk.
“The only difference would be if they decided that a ballot shouldn’t have been rejected, or if there is a ballot that should have been rejected. That can be the only difference.”
Currently, the votes are held at an RCMP detachment in Labrador and will be supervised by police until the recount takes place.
A meeting to go over the final rules for the recount will happen on June 17. Barring no objections, the recount is expected to last two days.
Premier Dwight Ball has kept a seat at the cabinet table open for Liberal Graham Letto, who stands to gain should the five-vote margin of victory be overturned in his favour.
Twitter: DavidMaherNL
