Judge rejected ballots marked in rectangular box containing candidates’ name in N.L. recount: report

A person leaves after voting at a polling station in the Vancouver Fraserview-South Burnaby riding on federal election day in Vancouver, on Monday, April 28, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

ST. JOHN’S — A new report explains how a judge dealt with an “unprecedented” number of disputed ballots — 1,041 — during a federal election recount in a rural Newfoundland riding recently won by the Conservatives.

Justice Garrett Handrigan’s report, dated Monday, says “maybe as many as half” of the disputed ballots in the Terra Nova-The Peninsulas riding were marked in the rectangular box containing the candidates’ name.

His report says lawyers for Liberal candidate Anthony Germain argued Handrigan would be disenfranchising those voters by dismissing their ballots.

However, lawyers for Conservative Jonathan Rowe said Handrigan must stick to the Canada Elections Act, which says any ballot not marked in the circle next to the name shall be rejected.

Handrigan rejected the so-called “rectangle ballots,” and a table accompanying his report indicates he ultimately dismissed more than 675 ballots.

Elections Canada announced Friday that Rowe was declared the winner after the recount found he had defeated Germain by 12 votes.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2025.

The Canadian Press