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CBC
8 hours ago
- General
- CBC
Newfoundland voters concerned after apparent voter mistakes void hundreds of ballots
Two voters in Newfoundland say they hope Elections Canada can learn from a dramatic judicial recount that revealed hundreds of people in their riding may have marked their ballots in the wrong spot. Jennifer Barnett says she didn't receive instructions about how to mark her ballot when she voted for Conservative candidate Jonathan Rowe in an advance poll ahead of the April 28 federal election. The rural Newfoundland riding of Terra Nova-The Peninsulas is home to many seniors and others who may have needed more instruction than she received to properly fill in a ballot, Barnett said. "Being able to vote is such a privilege, and if your vote is spoiled because of a simple error, I think it's very sad," the 43-year-old said. "I think it's very important, going forward, that we take a page from this." Elections Canada said it has several measures in place to ensure voters have the correct instructions for filling in their ballot, including visual instructions posted on the back of voting screens. "As we do after each election, we will look back at what went well and where we could improve things so that we can adjust our efforts to better serve electors, including the ways we communicate about how to properly mark ballots," spokesperson Matthew McKenna said in an email. A judicial recount in the eastern Newfoundland riding last month resulted in an "unprecedented" 1,041 disputed ballots, according to a report last week from provincial Supreme Court Justice Garrett Handrigan, who oversaw the process. On many of the disputed ballots — "maybe as many as half," Handrigan's report said — the voter had placed their mark in the rectangular boxes containing a candidate's name. In some of those so-called "rectangle votes," the elector had also made a mark in the circle to the right of the candidate's name. The Canada Elections Act is clear: any ballot "that has not been marked in a circle at the right of the candidates' names" should be rejected. Accordingly, the judge rejected the "rectangle votes," his report said. In all, 819 ballots were rejected in the recount. Rowe was declared the winner, defeating Liberal Anthony Germain by 12 votes. The Liberal Party said last week that it accepts the results. The average age in Terra Nova-The Peninsulas is 50, the highest among the seven ridings in the province — though not by much. In the ridings of Central Newfoundland and Long Range Mountains, the average is age 49, according to Elections Canada. There were fewer rejected ballots in both ridings — 492 and 452, respectively. Amanda Bittner, a political science professor at Memorial University in St. John's, said anything Elections Canada can do to decrease the confusion around voting is good. "Clearly, there were a lot of voters who wanted to have their voice heard in this election, if there were that many 'confused but clear' ballots," Bittner said in an email. "That speaks to a gap between voter understanding of what to do and Elections Canada processes." "Fortunately, Elections Canada takes voter turnout very seriously, and I am sure they have already made note of this issue and are working on tweaking their processes for next time," she added. Liberal volunteer Sheilagh Crombie-Brown said she didn't receive instructions when she cast a ballot at an advance poll in Bonavista, a community in the Terra Nova-The Peninsulas riding. She believes her 83-year-old husband would have mistakenly spoiled his ballot if she hadn't been there to help him. The 62-year-old also hopes Elections Canada will try to figure out why so many ballots were cast incorrectly. The federal elections agency does provide instructions, she said, but if people can't read or understand them, they won't be of much use. Meanwhile, Barnett is pleased that Rowe won and she doesn't question the results of the recount. However, she hopes Elections Canada will take note of what happened and ensure it won't happen again. "I think if they don't, they'd be doing an injustice to the whole system," she said. "Because when you see something of this magnitude happen, to not talk about it is just wrong."
CTV News
10 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
Newfoundland voters concerned after apparent voter mistakes void hundreds of ballots
Jonathan Rowe, who won the Newfoundland riding of Terra Nova—The Peninsulas for the Conservative Party after a recount, is applauded by colleagues at a meeting of the Conservative caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Sunday, May 25, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang ST. JOHN'S — Two voters in Newfoundland say they hope Elections Canada can learn from a dramatic judicial recount that revealed hundreds of people in their riding may have marked their ballots in the wrong spot. Jennifer Barnett says she didn't receive instructions about how to mark her ballot when she voted for Conservative candidate Jonathan Rowe in an advance poll ahead of the April 28 federal election. The rural Newfoundland riding of Terra Nova-The Peninsulas is home to many seniors and others who may have needed more instruction than she received to properly fill in a ballot, Barnett said. 'Being able to vote is such a privilege, and if your vote is spoiled because of a simple error, I think it's very sad,' the 43-year-old said in a recent interview. 'I think it's very important, going forward, that we take a page from this.' Elections Canada said it has several measures in place to ensure voters have the correct instructions for filling in their ballot, including visual instructions posted on the back of voting screens. 'As we do after each election, we will look back at what went well and where we could improve things so that we can adjust our efforts to better serve electors, including the ways we communicate about how to properly mark ballots,' spokesperson Matthew McKenna said in an email. A judicial recount in the eastern Newfoundland riding last month resulted in an 'unprecedented' 1,041 disputed ballots, according to a report last week from provincial Supreme Court Justice Garrett Handrigan, who oversaw the process. Mark in boxes On many of the disputed ballots — 'maybe as many as half,' Handrigan's report said — the voter had placed their mark in the rectangular boxes containing a candidate's name. In some of those so-called 'rectangle votes,' the elector had also made a mark in the circle to the right of the candidate's name. The Canada Elections Act is clear: any ballot 'that has not been marked in a circle at the right of the candidates' names' should be rejected. Accordingly, the judge rejected the 'rectangle votes,' his report said. In all, 819 ballots were rejected in the recount. Rowe was declared the winner, defeating Liberal Anthony Germain by 12 votes. The Liberal party said last week that it accepts the results. The average age in Terra Nova-The Peninsulas is 50, the highest among the seven ridings in the province — though not by much. In the ridings of Central Newfoundland and Long Range Mountains, the average is age 49, according to Elections Canada. There were fewer rejected ballots in both ridings — 492 and 452, respectively. Amanda Bittner, a political science professor at Memorial University in St. John's, said anything Elections Canada can do to decrease the confusion around voting is good. 'Clearly, there were a lot of voters who wanted to have their voice heard in this election, if there were that many 'confused but clear' ballots,' Bittner said in an email. 'That speaks to a gap between voter understanding of what to do and Elections Canada processes.' 'Fortunately, Elections Canada takes voter turnout very seriously, and I am sure they have already made note of this issue and are working on tweaking their processes for next time,' she added. Liberal volunteer Sheilagh Crombie-Brown said she didn't receive instructions when she cast a ballot at an advance poll in Bonavista, a community in the Terra Nova-The Peninsulas riding. She believes her 83-year-old husband would have mistakenly spoiled his ballot if she hadn't have been there to help him. The 62-year-old also hopes Elections Canada will try to figure out why so many ballots were cast incorrectly. The federal elections agency does provide instructions, she acknowledged, but if people can't read or understand them, they won't be of much use. Meanwhile, Barnett is pleased that Rowe won and she doesn't question the results of the recount. However, she hopes Elections Canada will take note of what happened and ensure it won't happen again. 'I think if they don't, they'd be doing an injustice to the whole system,' she said. 'Because when you see something of this magnitude happen, to not talk about it is just wrong.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2025. Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press
CBC
17 hours ago
- Business
- CBC
Conservative fundraiser casts doubt on whether all votes were 'accurate and counted' in leaked call
Social Sharing A caller raising money for the Conservative Party cast doubt on the validity of the recount process in the recent federal election, according to a recording obtained by CBC News. In the fundraising call, which happened on Saturday, an official identifying herself as being from the Conservative Party's supporter services claimed that Liberals and media seek to "attack" Conservatives and "scrutinize" the results of two judicial recounts won by Conservatives. Later in the call, she suggested to a potential donor that the results of the recounts were not final. "We need to stand up. We need to make sure all the votes are accurate and counted," she said. The caller appeared to be referencing two tight races that were ultimately won by Conservatives — the Newfoundland riding of Terra Nova-The Peninsulas and the Ontario riding Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore. She made the call a week after the judicial recounts finished, and after both Liberal candidates had conceded their losses. The call was recorded by the recipient, who previously supported the Conservative Party of Canada. CBC News is not identifying the donor, who fears reprisal for speaking out. He said he shared the audio from the call because he felt frustrated and insulted that the party cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process. Fundraising strategy It's not the first time the Conservatives have sought to fundraise by suggesting Liberals are trying to affect the outcome of elections after the ballots were cast. Shortly after the election, the party sent an email to its mailing list suggesting that their rivals sought to " flip just enough seats to edge closer to a majority" and were trying to "tip the scales" in the recounts. "It is part of a very common but unsavoury technique to get people to donate," said Chris Tenove, assistant director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at University of British Columbia. "You both ring an emergency bell and say urgent funding is needed to address it. And that can put people into a state of mind where they're perhaps more likely to give money … big picture, I think this strategy of political advertising is corrosive." Conservative spokeswoman Sarah Fischer said in a statement that the party did not question the results, but "wanted to ensure the recounts were accurate and fair." Under Canadian law, recounts are automatically triggered when the difference in the number of votes received by the top-finishing candidates is 0.1 per cent or less of the total number of votes cast. Recounts are overseen by Elections Canada, an independent agency. There are costs for parties and candidates during recounts, and legitimate reasons for parties to help scrutinize results. However, the recounts were already over at the time of the call, with winners confirmed. "It made me wonder, was this an effective fundraising approach that was used in recent weeks? And this individual just isn't ready to let it go?" said Tenove. "A few weeks ago, it made sense that you did need scrutineers and maybe legal representatives right there to advance the Conservatives' position and the process. It's not at all clear why that would be necessary now." A recent Leger poll found that 25 per cent of Conservative supporters said they don't trust the election results. The public's trust in election results has become a flashpoint in political discourse following the 2021 "stop the steal" movement in the United States, based on the debunked conspiracy that former president Joe Biden's win was rigged. A call that backfired CBC News has verified the veracity of the audio. The phone number associated with the call directs to a voicemail message identifying it as the voter outreach and funding office for the Conservative Party of Canada. The caller is first heard saying hello, and thanking the supporter for past donations. Then the topic turns to the recounts. "We won the two major election recounts all across the country, but the media liberals are trying to attack us and scrutinize the result. So now we have political operators on the ground," she said before asking for a $1,750 donation to the "Recount the Fight" fund. The supporter questioned what the party official was saying, noting that the recounts were completed and the Conservatives won them. "I didn't really like your message. The recounts are already over. And I don't believe in a media conspiracy, so you're not selling me today," he said. The party official doubled down. "Right now, the Liberal media is attacking us. They're trying to scrutinize our results here. So we need to stand up, we need to make sure all the votes are accurate and counted." "I don't believe that message, I'm sorry," said the former donor. Then the party official hung up and the line went dead.
CBC
5 days ago
- General
- CBC
Senator says 'onus is on Elections Canada' to educate voters, given high number of rejected ballots
In the wake of a recount in a tightly contested federal riding in rural Newfoundland, a longtime politician says Elections Canada needs to do a better job educating people on how to vote. An unprecedented number of disputed ballots in the Terra Nova-The Peninsulas riding forced a lengthy delay on the outcome of what was among the tightest races in this year's federal election. More than 41,000 people voted in the newly named riding. After a marathon recount, 819 ballots were ultimately rejected, according to the Elections Canada website. Fabian Manning, a senator and former Newfoundland and Labrador MHA and Conservative MP, said he's never seen so many ballots rejected. "When I look at the numbers of people who voted in the election, the numbers were much larger than they were in my campaigns," he told CBC News. He said there's no doubt in his mind that there was confusion among voters over the difference between federal and provincial ballots. Manning was in Marystown for the full two days of the recount as a scrutineer. Elections Canada ballots are grey, with white rectangles containing each candidate's name and party. A white circle to the right of each rectangle is where voters are supposed to mark their choice. A recount was ordered by Elections Canada after the initial tally following the April 28 federal election showed Liberal candidate Anthony Germain ahead of Conservative Jonathan Rowe by 12 votes. Rowe was declared the winner on May 23 by that same margin. In his decision released on Monday, Justice Garrett Handrigan wrote that on many of the disputed ballots — maybe as many as half — voters had left their mark in the rectangular box. In some of these so-called "rectangle ballots," voters had also left a mark in the circle. Manning said the Canadian Elections Act states a mark has to be made behind the candidate's name and doesn't stipulate if it's an X, check mark or initial, as long as it doesn't identify the voter. But in Newfoundland and Labrador provincial elections, voters can use an X or a check by the name on a ballot to signify who they are voting for. "People may think that, you know, put a check mark next to the person's name and that ballot is counted," said Manning. In contrast, a federal ballot is rejected if a mark isn't in the circle. "The Elections Canada people in the polling station and the judge, under the Canadian Elections Act, would not be allowed to accept that," said Manning. "That's why I think we ended up with a lot of rejected ballots." Manning says there are signs posted at polling stations telling people how to mark their ballots, but he worries the process isn't explained very well to people, especially seniors. He said there was a high number of rejected ballots across the country.
CBC
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Federal election result shows urban-rural divide in N.L., says political scientist
After a drawn-out recount in Terra Nova-The Peninsulas, the federal Conservatives now have three parliamentary seats in Newfoundland and Labrador for the first time in nearly 20 years. The previous trend toward Liberal voting in the province was, in part, a result of former premier Danny Williams and his "Anything But Conservative" campaign in 2008, where he encouraged residents not to vote blue in the federal election that year. Williams criticized former prime minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives for adjusting the federal equalization formula, effectively cutting payments to the province. Since then, the province has had mostly Liberal seats in parliament. That is until now. Fabian Manning, a former senator and Conservative MP, held one of three Conservative seats in 2006, before the Williams ABC campaign. "We were dealing with, you know, a very, very toxic situation between the government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the government of Canada at the time," Manning said in an interview with CBC News on Tuesday. "Because of that, we had the ABC campaign." He said that kind of idea doesn't go away overnight. But almost 20 years later, residents came around to the idea of voting Conservative again. 'Time moves on': N.L. has most Conservative MPs since ABC campaign 5 hours ago Duration 1:05 The political landscape was shaken by former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams in 2008 with his 'Anything but Conservative' campaign. But following this year's general election, the province has three Conservative MPs. Former senator and Conservative MP Fabian Manning says it could be a sign of the passage of time. Manning thinks many of the province's electors voted with their pocketbooks this year, and the party gained seats in turn. "Time moves on and people … look for new direction," he said. Urban-rural divide Acadia University political scientist Alex Marland says the result of this year's election is evidence of a rural-urban political divide in the province. "People who are socially progressive and anchored in what I would call kind of urban values, are clustered mostly in the St. John's area and maybe to a broader extent the Avalon," he said. Residents in rural areas, Marland continued, are more likely to be frustrated with the pace of change and will vote differently. Marland also says that Atlantic Canadians have "a lot of hesitations" about the kind of free market economics that is promoted by the Conservative Party of Canada. "As a result, they … tend to lean a little bit more towards the Liberals because the Liberals believe in government intervention in the economy," he said. Manning said residents in rural areas of the province are proud, and they have unique issues that other parties don't typically focus on, such as marine infrastructure and transportation. "I think that's the reason, sometimes, why you see a vote like we'd seen in April," he said. Marland added that social media could also be a reason for the change in voting behaviour. "Social media was not a huge thing back in 2006," he said. "[It] creates this stronger sense among people that they need to vote in a certain way." However, residents in urban centres promote different concerns online than those in rural areas, he said, which creates a growing cultural divide and polarization. "A lot of the things that people in urban centres will be talking about, including in St. John's, will be completely disconnected from somebody worried about trying to get their wharf repaired in rural Newfoundland and Labrador," he said. MUN political scientist Kelly Blidook says the increase in Conservative seats won't make a huge difference in parliament, but it does make a difference for the province. "Now what we see, at least on the island, it's half and half," said Blidook. "I think this is actually kind of an interesting thing where Newfoundland and Labrador is now in a competitive state." As for the upcoming provincial election, Blidook says it's possible there could be a similar dynamic rolling into provincial politics.
