NDP files court challenge to election
Alison Coffin wants results thrown out and a new vote held
Allegations of discrimination against certain voters, acceptance of voters’ home-printed ballots, elections staff working on ballot kits at home and a general mishandling of the recent provincial election have fuelled the head of the New Democratic Party in Newfoundland and Labrador to demand the results be thrown out and a new vote ordered.
NDP Leader Alison Coffin and Whymarrh Whitby, a St. John’s voter who says he was denied his right to vote, jointly filed an application in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Monday, asking the court to void the results of last month’s provincial election based on what they say are violations of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Elections Act.
Chief Electoral Officer Bruce Chaulk, St. John’s Eastquidi Vidi MHA John Abbott and returning officer Sherry Morrissey are named as respondents in the application, which lays out in 34 steps a timeline of events starting with the election proclamation by Lt.-gov. Judy Foote on Jan. 15 and ending with the announcement of the results, which saw Pemier Andrew Furey and the Liberals win with a slim majority on March 27. Earlier this month Coffin filed a separate court challenge, requesting a recount in the St. John’s Eastquidi Vidi district, which she lost to Abbott by 53 votes.
The latest document states Chaulk had legal duties that he failed to discharge “in the manner required of him, most notably with respect to his duty to ensure that the election proceeded with fairness, impartiality and in compliance with the act, and that (Chaulk) failed to act in good faith.”
Among the specific allegations in the application are discrimination of voters based on ethnic origin, age, and mental and physical disability related in part to Chaulk’s failure to provide in-person voting, which would have allowed voters assistance in casting their ballot; failure to provide a sufficient non-electronic means for voters to request ballots; refusal to count ballots returned with irregular declarations, including those that contained a signature on the wrong line; and a failure to make ballots and other materials available for voters whose first language wasn’t English, including Indigenous voters. Chaulk’s extensions to the writ period were also unlawful, the document alleges.
Coffin and Whitby allege ballots were provided to electors without proper identity confirmation, scrutineers were not permitted to see all the ballots as they were being counted and some ballots were counted when they shouldn’t have been, while others should have been counted and weren’t.
They say Chaulk directed Elections NL staff to take home elections materials, including ballot kits, to work on them from home, and many staff members did this, including Chaulk and members of his family.
Some voters provided ballots they had printed themselves and these were counted, Coffin and Whitby allege, and Chaulk had handdelivered ballots to former Progressive Conservative leader Cres Crosbie and Liberal MHA Siobhan Coady.
“The applicants … submit that any one of the aforenoted irregularities would be sufficient to call into question the validity of the results of an election, but that the volume and severity of the aforenoted irregularities is so great that the results of the election must be voided and a new election must take place forthwith,” the document reads.
In affidavits attached to the application, Coffin states she believes there were many people in her district who were added to the voters list without being properly sworn or identified, and that the NDP had requested a meeting between party leaders and Chaulk at least twice in February, but the requests were denied.
Whitby states he had requested a special ballot using the online form and received a confirmation of his submission, but no ballot, even after calling Elections NL twice.
“I never did receive a return call despite my two attempts to contact Elections NL subsequent to my request for a special ballot,” Whitby’s affidavit states.
St. John’s NDP scrutineer Judy Vanta also provided an affidavit, saying she had not been permitted to take notes while observing the counting process, as in previous elections, and scrutineers had been banned from bringing paper and a pen into the room.
“When I tried to view (the) tally and summary sheets, Elections NL staff would shield the papers from view with their bodies,” Vanta states. “When I was finally permitted to see the summary sheets, I observed at least one error in the recording of the ballot count.”
Vanta also alleges she reviewed spoiled ballots in St. John’s East-quidi Vidi that should have been counted and others that were discounted without being opened, due to misplaced signatures on the declaration form.
Elections NL is expected to file a legal response to the application before it is reviewed by the court.