A Supreme Court judge will rule Friday whether to order a recount in one or more districts following the recent provincial election.

Three applications have been filed by the losing Liberal candidates in Lewisporte-Twilingate, Derek Bennett; Placentia West-Bellevue, Brian Keating; and Topsail-Paradise, Dan Bobbett.

They were the ones put forth because they have the slimmest margins of loss to the winning PC candidates, between 18 and 102 votes.

Special ballots are mostly in dispute, and since hundreds of those were cast in each district, the Liberals argue they have a case.

That case hinges on the accounts of two party scrutineers, who attest to glaring inconsistencies with how ballots were accepted or rejected.

One said she witnessed it on election night in Topsail-Paradise, while the other said it happened the weekend before involving districts not even in dispute.

And with some 20,000 special ballots cast provincewide, it raises the specter of recounts in all 40 districts, with lawyers admitting it’s something Justice Fonse Faour can infer from their arguments.

Although Elections NL lawyer Andrew Fitzgerald was quick to say he doesn’t believe the issue was “widespread.”

Justice Faour, a former MP and provincial NDP leader himself, will decide Friday if there will be any recounts.

In adjourning until then, he added: “I suspect there will be some smiling and some not smiling.”