Carl White urges defeated election candidates to apply for recounts

A former Saint John politician, who was the victim of a tabulator machine error six years ago, is recommending that losers of close races from last week's province election have the results counted again.

Elections New Brunswick officially declared the results of the election on Friday so that gives defeated candidates until today to file applications for judicial recounts.

Former Saint John city councillor Carl White said he has seen the vote tabulation machines make mistakes first hand during his 2008 re-election bid.

White was declared a one-vote loser in the 2008 municipal election, but in an official review of votes the tabulators rejected, humans found one vote that should have counted for White.

That election was declared a tie and a byelection was ordered. White eventually lost that byelection, but six years later he said he is not convinced the tabulators are flawless.

"There was a whole lot of back and forth and the tabulation from the machines just didn't quite read some of the ballots right or declared some of the ballots spoiled,” White said.

It is still unclear how many recounts will be requested as a result of last Monday’s election.

People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin filed court documents on Monday in Fredericton to ask for a recount of his 26-vote loss in the riding of Fredericton-Grand Lake.

Progressive Conservative Glen Savoie is also expected to ask for a recount after losing in Saint John East by eight votes.

Any race decided by 25 or fewer votes is granted a judicial recount without question upon request.

The Elections Act states judicial recounts can be granted in races decided by more than 25 votes if a judge can be presented with evidence from a "credible witness" that:

• An election officer or vote tabulation machine failed to count, improperly counted or improperly rejected any ballots or made an incorrect statement of the number of votes cast for a candidate, or:
• The returning officer improperly added up the votes.

History of tight races

New Brunswick has seen several election recounts over the years.

Although a change in results, such as in in White's case is rare, changes in vote totals are quite common.

In 2003, Quispamsis Progressive Conservative Brenda Fowlie faced a recount after her 19-vote win.

All eyes were on the Quispamsis results during the recount because if Fowlie’s win had been overturned, it would have created a minority government situation with 27 Tories, 27 Liberals and one NDP seat.

Officials found the election night count was off, throwing out three ballots that had been counted, but Fowlie’s victory was upheld.

In 2010, Saint John Harbour Progressive Conservative Carl Killen survived a recount of his nine-vote election night win over Liberal Ed Doherty. The original total was also off by three votes, however.

Killen lost to Doherty by 71 votes in Monday’s election.

In the closest provincial election result, Victoria-Tobique Progressive Conservative Greg Inman lost in 1995 by two votes on election night.

Although a recount found 10 spoiled ballots had been wrongly counted, most were for Inman, who remained defeated