Newfoundland voters concerned after apparent voter mistakes void hundreds of ballots

ST. JOHN’S — Two voters in Newfoundland say they hope Elections Canada can learn from a dramatic judicial recount that revealed hundreds of people in their riding may have marked their ballots in the wrong spot.

Jennifer Barnett says she didn’t receive instructions about how to mark her ballot when she voted for Conservative candidate Jonathan Rowe in an advance poll ahead of the April 28 federal election.

Read More:

• Liberal government legislation to further tighten Canada-U.S. border expected today
• Opposition MPs add call for a spring economic update to throne speech
• Ottawa collects extra $617M from import duties in March as counter-tariffs hit U.S.

The rural Newfoundland riding of Terra Nova-The Peninsulas is home to many seniors and others who may have needed more instruction than she received to properly fill in a ballot, Barnett said.

“Being able to vote is such a privilege, and if your vote is spoiled because of a simple error, I think it’s very sad,” the 43-year-old said in a recent interview. “I think it’s very important, going forward, that we take a page from this.”

Elections Canada said it has several measures in place to ensure voters have the correct instructions for filling in their ballot, including visual instructions posted on the back of voting screens.

“As we do after each election, we will look back at what went well and where we could improve things so that we can adjust our efforts to better serve electors, including the ways we communicate about how to properly mark ballots,” spokesperson Matthew McKenna said in an email.

A judicial recount in the eastern Newfoundland riding last month resulted in an “unprecedented” 1,041 disputed ballots, according to a report last week from provincial Supreme Court Justice Garrett Handrigan, who oversaw the process.

On many of the disputed ballots — “maybe as many as half,” Handrigan’s report said — the voter had placed their mark in the rectangular boxes containing a candidate’s name. In some of those so-called “rectangle votes,” the elector had also made a mark in the circle to the right of the candidate’s name.

The Canada Elections Act is clear: any ballot “that has not been marked in a circle at the right of the candidates’ names” should be rejected. Accordingly, the judge rejected the “rectangle votes,” his report said.

In all, 819 ballots were rejected in the recount. Rowe was declared the winner, defeating Liberal Anthony Germain by 12 votes. The Liberal party said last week that it accepts the results.

The average age in Terra Nova-The Peninsulas is 50, the highest among the seven ridings in the province — though not by much. In the ridings of Central Newfoundland and Long Range Mountains, the average is age 49, according to Elections Canada.

There were fewer rejected ballots in both ridings — 492 and 452, respectively.

Amanda Bittner, a political science professor at Memorial University in St. John’s, said anything Elections Canada can do to decrease the confusion around voting is good.

“Clearly, there were a lot of voters who wanted to have their voice heard in this election, if there were that many ‘confused but clear’ ballots,” Bittner said in an email. “That speaks to a gap between voter understanding of what to do and Elections Canada processes.”

“Fortunately, Elections Canada takes voter turnout very seriously, and I am sure they have already made note of this issue and are working on tweaking their processes for next time,” she added.

Liberal volunteer Sheilagh Crombie-Brown said she didn’t receive instructions when she cast a ballot at an advance poll in Bonavista, a community in the Terra Nova-The Peninsulas riding. She believes her 83-year-old husband would have mistakenly spoiled his ballot if she hadn’t have been there to help him.

The 62-year-old also hopes Elections Canada will try to figure out why so many ballots were cast incorrectly. The federal elections agency does provide instructions, she acknowledged, but if people can’t read or understand them, they won’t be of much use.

Meanwhile, Barnett is pleased that Rowe won and she doesn’t question the results of the recount. However, she hopes Elections Canada will take note of what happened and ensure it won’t happen again.

“I think if they don’t, they’d be doing an injustice to the whole system,” she said. “Because when you see something of this magnitude happen, to not talk about it is just wrong.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2025.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press