ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — With the provincial election scheduled during a pandemic in the winter, the timing has been under scrutiny from the public since being announced.
But with 94 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in the province since Monday, the question of whether it is the right time has taken on extra weight.
The recent cases have shut down the returning office for the district of Mount Pearl-Southlands after a positive case there. As well, voters who took part in advance polling for Conception Bay East-Bell Island on Saturday, Feb. 6, held in the community centre located on Thorburn Road in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s, are being asked to isolate and call 811 for testing after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.
During a telephone interview, Chief Electoral Officer Bruce Chaulk said he is confident that with all the restrictions and protocols put in place, voting on Saturday will be safe and easy.
“If you’re on our list and you don’t have any oaths to fill out at the time, you’re in and out of the voting area very quickly,” Chaulk said. “I wouldn’t hesitate going to the polls myself, or having any of my children going to the polls or even working the polls. I would have no hesitation at all.”
Chaulk said voting has already been conducted in seniors’ homes and long-term care facilities by special ballot.
“For the most part, the ones who wanted to vote already voted throughout the province, not just St. John’s, but all the way around the province,” Chaulk said. “We just concluded 16 days of advance voting for people who could have voted by mail, could have voted in the district returning office over the last several weeks. So right now, we’re down to the point that the only option that we really have is at the poll.”
For those who now find themselves in self-isolation, a drive-thru “isolation vote” will be set up as an alternative. This will take place on election day in the parking lot of the West Block of Confederation Building.
“Until the Department of Health tells me it’s not safe to conduct an election, it is safe in their opinion. And because I rely on their opinion, it is safe to conduct an election at this time.” — Bruce Chaulk
For people who are self-isolating and aren’t capable of making it to the drive-thru, Chaulk said he has no other method.
“I can’t mail them something because they can’t go to the mailbox and retrieve the mail,” Chaulk said.
Under certain conditions, Chaulk said he would be able to postpone the election, but at this point, “nothing is saying to me that it is unsafe to run an election.”
“Until the Department of Health tells me it’s not safe to conduct an election, it is safe in their opinion. And because I rely on their opinion, it is safe to conduct an election at this time.”
During Wednesday’s COVID-19 briefing, when asked what her view was regarding the election going ahead, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said her power doesn’t extend to elections.
“The law is the law. I don’t have jurisdiction over the election,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s not a view.
“I’m not a legal scholar and there is lots of different legislation which would come into play here... how one overrules another is certainly not my area of expertise, but my power does not extend into this."
@AndrewLWaterman