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Court Rejects Bloc Bid to Void One-Vote Terrebonne Result

The judge ruled a misprinted postal code on a special-ballot envelope was a human administrative mistake not grounds to annul the election.

Overview

  • Superior Court Justice Éric Dufour dismissed Bloc Québécois candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné’s challenge to the April Terrebonne result.
  • The ruling held that the postal code mix-up on Elections Canada materials was an inadvertent administrative error, not an electoral irregularity under federal law.
  • Dufour warned that treating administrative mistakes as irregularities would invite numerous contests and said annulments are reserved for the most serious cases.
  • Evidence showed an election employee mistakenly printed his own postal code on at least 40 special-ballot envelopes, leading one Bloc voter to have her ballot returned.
  • The result stands with Liberal Tatiana Auguste declared the winner after a May 10 judicial recount set the tally at 23,352 to 23,351, as Liberals govern in a minority and the Bloc reviews the decision.