ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Fasten your seatbelts, Newfoundland and Labrador electorate, there’s still a bumpy ride ahead.
Major issues were raised Saturday in letters from provincial political parties to Elections Newfoundland and Labrador, with problems with voters’ access to special ballots at the top of the lists.
Sunday morning, Chief Electoral Officer Bruce Chaulk announced yet another extension in voting and he can’t rule out that it will be the last one.
Things may be reassessed Friday.
The deadline to apply for a Special Ballot has been extended to Friday, February 19 at 8:00 p.m.
— Elections NL (@NLElections) February 14, 2021
The deadline for Elections NL to receive completed voting kits is on or before Friday, March 5. #nlpoli #nlvotes pic.twitter.com/zHhQ5rVQ90
“It would be too early to make a decision like that… I’m hoping not. We’re in a Level 5 pandemic. Things take longer,” Chaulk said Sunday.
The deadline to apply for a special ballot is now Friday, Feb. 19 at 8 p.m. (it had originally been 8 p.m. today). Completed voting kits must now be returned to Elections NL on or before Friday, March 5 (The previous deadline had been March 1). Elections NL also contracted a call centre so people who don’t have internet access have a way to get their vote-by-mail kits.
While weekend letters to Election NL were written diplomatically, it was a cold, cold Valentine’s Day on the election front.
The NDP, PCs and Newfoundland and Labrador Alliance all want an all-party meeting with Chaulk to relay concerns and get answers.
On Sunday, PC Leader Ches Crosbie said Chaulk had time to go on national media (Friday), but couldn’t spare the time to speak to party representatives in the past few days.
“This is atrocious. The registered parties are the vehicles for delivering democracy to the people and to the province,” said Crosbie who said all the zig-zagging has left the confused electorate with questions about their voting rights and how to exercise them.
“It defies all comprehension (Chaulk) would think consultation with the registered parties would not be a benefit to him. His approach to this gobsmacks me. This is Alice in Wonderland stuff.”
“This is crazy,” agreed NL Alliance Leader Graydon Pelley.
PCs call for public briefing
Crosbie called on Chaulk to hold a public briefing much like Chief Medical Officer of Public Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald does with COVID-19 issues. The public needs and deserves answers, he said.
Crosbie said Chaulk also needs to embark on an information campaign, including sending out new voter registration cards with accurate information as the deadlines have changed repeatedly.
Crosbie also acknowledged the challenging time for everybody and all the families affected by COVID-19 infections, as well as those who have to self-isolate.
"I remain convinced that a meeting involving the people responsible for administering the election and the people who are actually on the ground dealing with the electors would likely be advantageous to all concerned." — NDP president Kyle Rees
In a letter from the NDP to Chaulk on Sunday — the second letter released by the NDP in two days — the party said it appreciates the deadline changes, but continues to receive messages and phone calls from voters who find the Elections NL website confusing or difficult to navigate. As well, the New Democrats say they have concerns for people who do not have Internet access, people in remote communities and people for whom English is not the first language.
“(Saturday), when I asked for a meeting, you agreed within mere minutes, asking the political parties to set up a meeting time. Then, only a few hours later, you indicated you would suddenly be unavailable for a meeting,” provincial NDP president Kyle Rees wrote in the letter.
“I am somewhat concerned about the optics of your changed decision, as between those two responses, the president of the Liberal Party indicated his party would not be participating. I am hopeful that your second response meant simply that you would not be available today, but would still consider an all-party discussion on another day. I remain convinced that a meeting involving the people responsible for administering the election and the people who are actually on the ground dealing with the electors would likely be advantageous to all concerned, and would very likely help develop solutions.
“We are indeed all pulling on the same oar, which means that communications between us are more important than ever, so we don't just row around in circles.”
"We view it as most productive for your focus to be exclusively upon tackling those issues head-on rather than attempting to adjudicate political concerns." — John Samms, Liberal Party co-chair
On Saturday, the Liberals released a letter they had sent to Chaulk
“We agree there are issues in respect of challenges currently before Elections NL, such as access to your office by phone, and we view it as most productive for your focus to be exclusively upon tackling those issues head-on rather than attempting to adjudicate political concerns that may be arising as between political campaigns behind closed doors,” wrote Liberal Party of NL co-chair John Samms.
Chaulk told The Telegram Sunday morning he wasn’t planning an all-party meeting and if there were any concerns, to give him a call.
As for why political parties have had a hard time reaching him in recent days, Chaulk said he’s asked them to have just one representative call, not 50 or 60.
Liberals don’t want all-party meeting
Liberal Leader Andrew Furey, in a statement Sunday, said the special ballot deadline extension is great news for voters.
“It’s important that voters can safely cast their ballot, so I’m glad to see the province's independent agency responsible for running the election make this change,” Furey said.
Otherwise, the Liberals are sticking by their letter to Chaulk from Saturday — that political parties cannot, and should not, interfere in the running of elections tin which they are participating. That letter advised against an all-party meeting with Chaulk.
Pelley said Sunday if he had to describe the election so far, it would be unnecessary and confusing.
“The problem is that things are changing every day. …. Obviously, there was no plan put in place for this scenario. We’ve had a year now to plan for this … but we are no further ahead or better off than if it was sprung on us unawares. We knew COVID was real.”
Elections NL hired the call centre located across from its St. John’s headquarters — Telelink — because its phones have been ringing off the wall and there have been few hands to answer them.
"Obviously, there was no plan put in place for this scenario. We’ve had a year now to plan for this … but we are no further ahead or better off than if it was sprung on us unawares. We knew COVID was real.” — NL Alliance Leader Graydon Pelley
Anyone who has called Elections NL to request a voting kit can, at this point, expect a return phone call in a few days, Chaulk's release Sunday said.
On Friday night, Elections NL began a deep cleaning at headquarters and only a fraction of staff were back Saturday as the workspace was restructured to be safer. Voters were encountering endless problems with jammed phone lines and trying to access online balloting, prompting the political parties to demand solutions.
As the campaign was in the homestretch, the low COVID-19 case count exploded last week to a Friday's declaration of Alert Level 5, with the UK variant of the virus driving up emergency measures and stress levels.
Election workers quit in droves through the week and all of Saturday's in-person voting was called off Friday across the province, not just the Avalon area.
The winter-timed, pandemic election by then had already escalated to full-on confusion, with blaming and counter blaming.
Chaulk apologizes for CTV appearance
Friday night added to journalists’ what-just-happened-now whiplash when Chaulk did a national interview with CTV, despite his office telling local media he was too busy earlier that day, and without speaking to the parties first.
Chaulk told The Telegram Sunday it was a mistake and he apologizes for it. He said his office had issued a media release cancelling in-person voting and for some technical reason. that was on a delay. He said he was prepared to talk to local reporters and answered his phone expecting someone in the local media was calling to talk about the release. Chaulk said the national media call hadn’t been cleared by his communications representative.
Furey, who has been taking heat since calling the election, has said Chaulk stated in the fall and again in January Elections NL was ready.
Before the election was called, The Telegram asked Chaulk about the scenario in the event an upsurge in COVID-19 cases hit, as has happened this past week.
Chaulk said he was ready, that he was taking guidance from Fitzgerald, and had been in touch with counterparts in other provinces who had conducted pandemic elections.
Before the surge, all the sanitizing supplies were on hand and there was no problem getting workers.
“And we were ready to go. We had everything ready...Hindsight is 20/20,” Chaulk said, adding if election day had just been one week earlier, it would have not gone awry.
And then with the surge in COVID-19 cases, 80 per cent of the poll staff dropped off.
Contingency plan was special ballot uptake
But the contingency plan included Elections NL counting on more people applying for special ballots from the get-go.
Both Crosbie and Pelley said Sunday if that were the case, Elections NL should have clearly articulated to the public from the outset that they should opt for the special ballots in case there was such a surge.
“The issue here is that Furey as premier, before he called the election, should have satisfied himself that there was an adequate contingency plan in place in case there was an outbreak during the course of the election. And he didn’t,” Crosbie said.
How would Chaulk answer those who call it a great big fiasco?
“It’s an election during a pandemic. There are things that are going to happen no one has control over. And if we could have anticipated that we would go to Level 5, the whole election would have been different from the beginning or it probably wouldn’t have even been called,” he said.
As of Sunday morning, there were 40,000 applications for special ballots. That’s in addition to 34,000 special ballots that were cast before the election was upended. Even when the deadline day comes, it may take 48 hours or so for Newfoundland and Labrador to know the election results.
Meantime, Chaulk said all the completed ballots are being kept in a locked, alarm-protected facility.
