Overview
- Elections Canada tabled a 77-page post-election report and initiated an internal review focused on training, controls and processes for special ballots, with findings expected this fall.
- The report details three incidents in which hundreds of special ballots were not included in the count, including more than 800 held at a B.C. returning officer’s office and separate packages of 235 and 232 in Nova Scotia and Ontario.
- The agency said those cases did not change outcomes, noting the B.C. ballots spanned 74 ridings and the Nova Scotia and Ontario contests were won by large margins.
- In Terrebonne, Que., where the Liberal candidate prevailed by one vote after a recount, the report cites incorrect postal codes on some return envelopes; a Bloc Québécois court challenge is set to begin in October, and Elections Canada outlines that 85 of 115 special ballots were returned on time and counted.
- Elections Canada apologized for polling-place failures in northern Quebec, where two communities saw stations closed and seven had reduced hours, and it pledged to publish conclusions from a separate review of those incidents.