It was the icing on the election cake. But no, wait — there’s more icing.
And still more. Gobs more. Damn, we’re sick of icing.
Today, the results are expected in this province’s provincial election.
And what a mess it’s been.
In case you need a refresher, in-person voting fell by the wayside as a spike in COVID-19 cases locked down part of the province.
At that point, Chief Elections Officer Bruce Chaulk had already said that there was no mechanism available to allow people who were self-isolating to vote, because the special voting and advanced polls process was already finished.
But then, Elections NL decided to reopen special ballots, and make them the sole method of voting. Prospective voters had to register online or by phone to receive their ballots by mail (still a potential problem for people self-isolating, because they were not allowed to leave their property).
The latest gaffe? Four voters were allowed to vote by phone after problems with their special ballot. The problem is, that’s not legally allowed.
There were scores of complaints from people who were unable to get through on blocked phone lines before the deadline, or who faced a crashing Elections NL website, and also could not register. Chaulk suggested those voters shouldn’t have waited for the last minute to register, apparently forgetting that, when his agency specified time limits, it had a duty to ensure it could deliver full service.
But those are just some of the irregularities. Some voters didn’t get ballots in the mail — Chaulk actually hand-delivered some himself. Others didn’t receive their ballots at all. Some voters got multiple ballots, at different addresses. Ballot packages, in the interest of time, were only printed in English.
The latest gaffe? Four voters were allowed to vote by phone after problems with their special ballot. The problem is, that’s not legally allowed. Telephone voting wasn’t offered to all the other potential voters in the province, meaning those four got special treatment.
All of this, of course, runs right into Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 3 of the Charter reads, “Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein.”
As the federal Department of Justice explains: “The purpose of section 3 is to protect the right of each citizen to play a meaningful role in the electoral process. Participation in the electoral process has an intrinsic value independent of its impact upon the actual outcome of elections.”
We will have an election result today, unless something else goes wrong. Will it accurately represent the will of all of those who wanted to vote, and who were legally able to do so?
That is a very different question.
The next bit of icing on the electoral cake may actually be spread by lawyers and judges.
