Voters voted with post-it in the last elections in T.-N.-L.

Voters have expressed themselves on self -adhesive notes Post-it. People have tried to register for postal vote using egoportraits rather than identity cards. Half a million envelopes had to be ordered at the last minute.

These are only a few examples of confusion and chaos within the Electoral Agency of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2021, when a hatching of COVID-19 led to the cancellation of the vote in person on a provincial scale.

Without any notice, a correspondence vote had to be organized for more than 100,000 voters.

More than 900 pages of documents, deposited in the Provincial Supreme Court in the context of an amicable electoral dispute last month, detail the way in which the last provincial electoral campaign, which was to last the minimum of days allowed by law, was finally the longest in the history of the province.

No less than four breakdowns hit the T.-N.-L. election website. While people hurried to order a special ballot kit.

The first was recorded on February 12, when the whole province went to the maximum alert on the COVID-19 and the vote in person was canceled in all 40 districts. Two breakdowns paralyzed the voting registration system the same day of the deadline to order a bulletin, one of which during the last 30 minutes before the gate is closed.

Forty bulletins sent in a single post box

According to interrogation transcriptions, the T.-N.-L. election workers, overwhelmed with calls and emails, prioritized the rapid sending of voting kits to voters rather than the verification of the identity of the latter.

Kim Petleytemporary supervisor of special bulletins, said that if an voter called to register for a mail order, but did not appear on the electoral list, We took it to the word and we distributed the bulletin.

Normally […] This would never have been acceptable, but the objective was to distribute ballots to the people who asked for itshe explained.

To confirm their address, some voters sent a photo of them in front of their house. Candidates sent 50 to 60 requests in one faxaccording to the director general of the elections of the time, Bruce Chaulk. In a case, a voter in a labor camp in Alberta alone ordered 40 kits of special voting ballots for him and his colleagues. All bulletins were sent to the same post box.

In an email, sent after the cancellation of the vote in person and the postponement of the deadline to vote by post, a liberal volunteer asked if a voter who had just celebrated his 18th birthday was now eligible by the ballot. Travis Wooleythe number two of elections T.-N.-L. replied that it was necessary to discuss it with its boss.

The latter, Bruce Chaulkconfirmed, according to one of the transcriptions, that his staff had received voting kits which lacked formal bulletins, but which contained improvised bulletins on A sheet of paper. The votes were counted since he had understood the intention of the voter.

It didn’t make any sensesaid Yvonne BugdenCoordinator of special voting ballots, who also confirmed that some voters had voted with sticker notes Post-it.

Hysteria in voters, according to the CEO of elections

Bruce Chaulk has repeatedly defended the decisions of his agency, according to transcriptions, which were filed in court in the context of an electoral dispute brought in April 2021 by the Whymarrh voter Whitby and the former chief of NPD provincial, Allison Coffinwhich had just lost by 53 votes only in Saint-Jean Est-Quidi Vidi.

The protest was settled amicably when the winner of the race, the Liberal Minister John Abbott announced in June that he was going to resign, thus avoiding an expensive trial a few months from the next elections. For its part, elections T.-N.-L. admitted that she had deprived whymarrh Whitby of his right to vote.

Depending on the transcription, Bruce Chaulk stressed that public health had approved the pre-electoral preparations for T.-N.-L. elections, but that thehysteria Linked to the pandemic had resulted in the resignation as a whole of hundreds of election workers and closed many buildings which would have served as polling stations.

He also pointed out that his agency had planned that more people were going to vote by special bulletin for pandemic elections and that she had therefore prepared some 60,000 kits of special bulletins before the 2021 election, much more than the 9,313 kits used in the previous elections in 2019.

The team of Bruce Chaulk had also hired between 20 and 30 people to take care of special bulletins, more than double the number of people hired in 2019. The agency also made 3000 liters of disinfectant reserves for the hands.

However, in the end, 200 special voting officers were needed and half a million additional envelopes had to be ordered at the last minute.

Tensions between Chaulk and public health

Bruce Chaulk said he thought that the chief hygienist of the province, the Dre Janice Fitzgeraldcould have intervened and put an end to the elections, but that it hesitated, while elections T.-N.-L. had linked hands.

Everyone expected that I end the electionshe said. [La Dre Fitzgerald] certainly had the power to do sosupported Bruce Chaulkcontradicting the declarations made by public health in 2021.

Bruce Chaulk was the subject of criticisms, in 2021, for having handed over voting bulletins to certain candidates inhabitants near his home, while thousands of others awaited their bulletin by post. He briefly authorized four people to vote by telephone, a practice prohibited by provincial law.

But according to the documents, he was the subject of threats andunfounded accusations During the elections and his car was vandalized. Towards the end of the campaign, the police patrolled in front of his house. He also said that some candidates had shouted on his staff.

No evidence of electoral fraud

According to the documents consulted by Radio-Canada, none of the those questioned saw evidence of fraud or people who voted more than once. T.-N.-L. elections However, recognized that more than 40 voters in Saint-Jean East-Quidi Vidi should have received a ballot, or voted in the bad constituency.

Amanda Bittnerprofessor of political science at university Memorialbelieves that the many anomalies Observed during the last provincial elections question the integrity of the poll. Vote with Post-it? There is no one who believes that this is the right way of doing thingsshe says.

Kelly Blidookalso a political scientist at Memorialbelieves that confusion within T.-N.-L. elections created a climate errorswhich decreases confidence in the electoral process and could have a negative effect on the rate of participation in the future.

However, he recognizes that elections T.-N.-L. was found in the little enviable position to organize a vote during a pandemic far from being settled. He stresses that the liberal Prime Minister of the time, Andrew Fureycould have been waiting for several months before summoning voters to the polls.

T.-N.-L. elections said he had learned lessons

In a statement Wednesday, T.-N.-L. elections Promised that it will be well prepared for the next elections. She underlined the in -depth revision Carried out by its staff after the 2021 ballot, which notably made it possible to improve the training of staff and create working groups on emergency situations, including cyber attacks.

The agency has also opened a new warehouse capable of storing 100,000 kits of special voting ballots at all times.

After its re -election in 2021, the liberal government promised to modernize the law on elections, a promise that will not be respected. The assembly chamber has suspended its work for the summer and the next ballot must take place by October 14.