Some voters are still expressing concerns about the way ballots were counted in the New Brunswick election Monday evening.
The CTV News election unit detected incorrect data in at least a dozen ridings an hour before Elections New Brunswick acknowledged there was a problem, which took two hours to correct.
The final results are due to be confirmed on Friday, but some voters remain skeptical about whether the results are accurate.
Elections New Brunswick says it is verifying the vote to make it official, as it does after every election.
David Owens, the assistant chief electoral officer, says Elections New Brunswick began sending a database of the results back to returning officers Tuesday morning.
“Their job at that point was to verify the numbers they have on memory card printouts, the memory cards, that they jive exactly with the numbers that appear on the results we’ve seen,” says Owens.
So far, Elections New Brunswick says nothing unusual has been noted.
Premier-Designate Brian Gallant says a recount would do no harm, but he continues to express his confidence in Elections New Brunswick.
“That said, I think it’s very clear that if there are issues, we are open to digging deeper to see what happened and what can be improved,” says Gallant.
As of now, Elections New Brunswick says it has received no official request for a recount.
“The close races, I think, will probably go to some recounts to confirm the results,” says Jamie Gillies, a public policy professor at St. Thomas University.
There are five ridings in which candidates won by less than 100 votes. As far as a hand count in every riding, the possibility of that happening was reduced when David Alward conceded the election.
“If all the major players in the election agree with that, it’s hard to go back now and do a week-long recount,” says Gillies.
The deadline to make a recount application is Tuesday.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore
