Elections NB to blame for delayed results, tabulator company says

The company that supplied the electronic tabulators for last week's provincialelection is blaming the delayed results on Elections New Brunswick's use ofsoftware that was not "pre-approved."

"In a subsequent post-election review of its equipment, systems and processes,Dominion Voting Systems has confirmed the irregularities that appeared on the mediaserver were solely due to this inadequate file transfer software," the company said in a statement.

Dominion has since modified its best practices to ensurethat all software that transfers results out of Dominions tabulation server willnow require Dominions approval, the statement said.

"The integrity of our processes andprotocols is always our top priority," said president and CEO John Poulos.

Sept. 22 marked the first provincial election in which electronic tabulators were used at all polling stations.

Results steadily streamed in from across the province early in the evening, but later ground to a near-halt.

Dominion says its review foundElections New Brunswick successfully and securely delivered electionresults using Dominions products and software.

This was done via telephone from eachpolling station, followed by delivery of data from encrypted memory cards over a closednetwork to a secure server, it said.

This software was not provided,installed or used by Dominion Voting Systems as has been previously reported.- Dominion Voting Systems

The integrity of the election results was never compromised, the Toronto-based company stressed.

But incomplete information was subsequentlytransferred to the media "because anexternal piece of software was used that did not have an appropriate validation process," the statement said.

"This file transfer software was installed in order to expedite the transfer of results fromthe closed network secure server to media outlets," it said.

"This software was not provided,installed or used by Dominion Voting Systems as has been previously reported."

On Sept. 26, Elections New Brunswick officially confirmed the results of the Sept. 22 election, with Brian Gallant's Liberals forming the next government with 27 seats,compared to 21 for the Progressive Conservatives and one Green Party seat.

But there have been calls from candidates and political parties for manual recounts in specificridings, while others have demanded that ballots in all 49ridingsbe recounted.

The Progressive Conservativesexpect to apply for judicial recounts in fiveridings, each of which saw their candidates lose by fewer than 200 votes.

The Elections Act allows any candidate who loses by fewer than 25 votes to request a judicial recount and will not be required to justify a reason.

Candidates who lose by more than 25 votes can still request a judicial recount, but they will be required to file an affidavit and justify the recount.

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austinfiled papers with the Court of Queen's Bench in Fredericton on Monday to ask for a judicial recount of the results in the Fredericton-Grand Lake riding.

Austin lost the riding by 26 votes, finishing behind Progressive Conservative Pam Lynch.

Candidates have until Tuesday to apply for a recount.

Elections New Brunswickhas saidit will not be conducting a review,and expects to use the same voting system from the same company in the next election.