The chief electoral officer of Newfoundland and Labrador is changing the rules around special ballots to keep party workers at arm's-length from the electoral process.
Political party workers used to be able to help people who couldn't get to the polls apply for special ballots, pick up the ballots and take them to voters, fill them out and return them.
But Paul Reynolds, the province's chief electoral officer, said that won't happen in the next provincial election.
"When it comes specifically to the hands-on touching and delivering and receipt of that special ballot kit, it will be handled by an elections official or the elector only," Reynolds said. "Campaign workers will not have access to those."
It's a change that a man who was charged with violating the Elections Act welcomes.
During the last provincial election in 2003, Oliver Somerton dropped off a special ballot to a home in Stephenville on the province's west coast. He was later charged with violating the Elections Act for allegedly influencing a woman's vote. He was found not guilty.
"After the last election, I think that's a great idea what they're doing now," Somerton said. "It'd be somewhat more control over it."
However, he said the old system of allowing campaign workers to handle the special ballots wasn't totally flawed.
"The old system did work because out of 12,000 ballots, they only had one problem, and at the end of the day, that wasn't even a problem," Somerton said.
But Somerton said he does wish the new process had been in place for the last election so he wouldn't have been charged with an offence he didn't commit.
| Party | Elected | Leading | Total | Vote Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PC | 43 | 0 | 43 | 69.56% |
| LIB | 3 | 0 | 3 | 21.98% |
| NDP | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8.21% |
| OTH | 0 | 0 | 0 | .25% |
| Last Update:October 9, 10:58:12 PM NDT | ||||
| Unofficial results were updated at the time shown. For more recent results, visit Elections NL. The CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites. External links will open in a new window. |
NL Votes 2007 »
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