A former Elections NL worker believes the provincial election should have been delayed due to hasty decisions made once the province moved into Alert Level 5. The former employee contacted VOCM News on the condition of anonymity.
The former worker says although preparations had been made to ensure voter safety while case counts remained low, it appears as though there was no contingency plan in place to deal with an election under a lockdown scenario.
Elections NL quickly shifted to a mail-in Special Ballot system when Alert Level 5 was declared the evening before polling stations were set to open for in-person voting.
The former employee claims that an apparent lack of direction exacerbated an already difficult situation, comparing it to a “three-ring circus.” That included the sudden change in Election NL’s in-house voting software and a registration process that they say left the door open to potential voter fraud.
The worker tells VOCM News duplicate and even triplicate ballots were sent out after some voters reported they hadn’t received their ballots and because of the volume of requests, verification of a voter’s name, age and address became difficult, if not impossible, especially in households with more than one voter.
Their conclusion? “This election should have been delayed,” says the worker, because decisions were made “hastily, with no forethought” and that the election was not “well planned” or “well-executed.”
VOCM News reached out to Chief Electoral Officer Bruce Chaulk who was unable to offer comment while an application for a judicial recount is in progress.
