1 year after N.L. election chaos, candidates still want answers

A year after Newfoundland and Labrador's lastelection descended into chaos, candidates say they still have unanswered questions about the roller-coasterrace and just how much the campaign's twists and turnsaffected the result.

As a COVID-19 outbreak struck the province, ushering in a wave of new public health restrictions the night before polling day, poll workersquit in droves. In-person voting was cancelled provincewide when it became clear Elections N.L. no longer had enough staff.

What was supposed to be the shortest possible campaign turned into the longest race on record. Over the next six weeks, the deadline to vote by mail was extended three times and candidates scrambled to help voters request, receive and return special ballots in time to be counted. In the end, voter turnout dropped to a historic low.

Kristina Ennis, PC candidate in St. John's West, says she just wants to know what happened.

"People had tried to their best ability to make their voice heard and make their vote count. And it didn't happen for everyone, unfortunately."

No planning for nightmare scenario

Last February, Elections N.L. admitted it had never planned for a nightmare scenario with in-person voting cancelled provincewide. Since the end of the campaign and the beginning of court cases challenging the election, chief electoral officer Bruce Chaulk has refused all interview requests from CBC/Radio-Canada.

In Torngat Mountains, the province's most isolated and most sparsely populated district, NDP candidate Patricia Johnson-Castle had to translate voter information into Innu-aimun and Inuttitut after Elections N.L. indicated voting kits would be distributed only in English.

"If I could do it, why couldn't Elections N.L.?"she said."In Natuashish, like 87 per cent of people there speak Innu-aimun, so people live their whole lives in a non-English language. Those are people whose voices are often excluded from our democracy in any case and in this particular election, that was even more egregious than normal."

In Nain and Natuashish, the largest communities in Torngat Mountains, added Johnson-Castle, about one-third of people don't have home phones or home internet access, making last-minute voter registration all the more difficult.

"And remember, during the election, we were in lockdown," she said, adding that weather-related postal delays further compounded issues.

"The way that I think about it is, if this election had happened in Latin America, if this election had happened in Africa or Asia, how would Canadian or international media be talking about it?" she said. "I mean, in my district, the voter turnout was 22 per cent. Voter turnout in 2019 was 50 per cent. We're looking at a huge drop, a 50 per cent drop in voter turnout."

Last chance for answers?

After the election, Independent MHA Paul Lane had hoped to call Chaulk before the House of Assembly to answer questions from members.

"I felt it was very important that we have this individual come before the House of Assembly so that members of the House could ask some very serious questions about what went on and be confident in the answers that they received and what actually happened,"said Lane, who represents Mount Pearl-Southlands.

"Well, no surprise to me, and I'm sad to say, absolutely nothing happened."

He said the last chance at answers could come in June, when Chaulk will likely testify in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court. Three candidates, including former NDP leader Alison Coffin, have alleged a litany of irregularities occurred during the campaign and are challenging the validity of the election in their district. Three weeks of hearings are scheduled.

"I think this is going to be the only opportunity, sadly, to get those answers," Lane said.

Elections Act reform

Since April, Justice Minister John Hogan has chaired an all-party committee on electoral reform. The Liberal government has promised to revamp the Elections Act, which hasn't been updated since 1991.

"We don't have a timeline for when it will come before the House, but we do have a good group that's working together,"he said.

"We're doing a deep dive into it, we're looking at it thoroughly. If it requires some serious changes, that will be a major overhaul. If we can get away with tinkering with a few sections here and there to revise it, we'll do that."

Hogan, who is also the province's attorney general, declined to comment on the election challenges from Coffin and PC candidates Jim Lester and Sheila Fitzgerald.

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