PC challenge of Saint John Harbour election result sent back to drawing board

A Court of Queen's Bench judge has expressed concern with unexplained voter irregularities in Saint John Harbour but told Progressive Conservatives they need to better focus their attempt to have it reviewed.

"Keep it simple," Justice Hugh McLellan told PC lawyer Kelly VanBuskirkon Monday afternoon after dismissing the party's application for a full review of all Saint John Harbour election documents but leaving the door open to a narrower investigation.

"I recognize there is real concern here. There's a real issue here that needs to be studied in depth."

Liberal Gerry Lowe beat Progressive Conservative candidate Barry Ogden in Saint John Harbour during last month's general election by just 10 votes.

A recount upheld the result, but lawyers for Ogden then produced documents claiming widespread irregularities in voting in the riding, including suggestions multiple people voted more than once, one voter used an empty lot as a home address, and two ballots were cast in the name of dead people.

The party applied to court seeking all documents related to voting in the riding from Elections New Brunswick, so it could attempt to discover why poll clerks recorded 40 unique voter identification numbers as having voted twice on election day. The effortran into opposition both from Lowe and Elections NB.

Specificity required

Fred McElman, a lawyer for the election agency, submitted an affidavit from a seniorofficial that said a complete electronic review of voting records in the riding showed no voter cast more than a single ballot.

In addition, McElman said the two deceased people alleged to have voted were actually their children who, in each case, had the same first and last name of their late parent.

McElman said legislation governing the vote requires a specific allegation of errors being made in voting procedures not "suspicion and speculation" of errors for a review to proceed.

"They want to conduct an audit of the election result," said McElman, suggesting Tories were trying to launch a fishing expedition in hopes of finding problems they have no evidence of.

"If I look at this, I might find that," he said of the application, suggesting poll clerk inadvertently wrote down numbers incorrectly.

Lowe's lawyer, Tom O'Neil, agreed with McElman, andMcLellan concurred that the application launched by Progressive Conservatives was too broad to succeed.

However, he felt the issue deserved an airing and invited VanBuskirk to refile his application to focus on the issue of why 40 voter ID numbers were recorded twice in voting logs.

"Keep this matter in gear so we can get this matter fully resolved," McLellansaid.

A new hearing was scheduled for Nov. 30.