Justice Hugh McLellan won't rule yet on who picks up recount tab
Judge says it's premature to make a ruling about costs
A Court of Queen's bench judge involved in one of the judicial recounts says it would be premature to make a ruling about who should pick up the tab.
"I would like to defer making any rulings on costs in this matter until both parties have an opportunity to ask Elections New Brunswick if they would like to make a contribution to their costs," said Justice Hugh McLellan in a written decision released Friday.
Today in Saint John Harbour, a Liberal victory — and the accuracy of the vote count through computerized tabulators — was confirmed by a manual recount of the paper ballots.
"Well, I'm absolutely delighted," said Doherty, as elections officials wheeled boxes containing the 5,200 paper ballots out of the Saint John Law Courts building.
"I'd like to thank the constituents who had confidence in me. It was validated when the tabulation machine jived with the manual count," he said.
The Saint John Harbour recount, which began Thursday and concluded around mid-day Friday, was the first of seven judicial recounts to be completed.
Under provincial legislation, Elections New Brunswick must pay for recounts in ridings with a winning majority of less than 25 votes.
But in races decided by more than 25 votes, the party that applies for a recount that doesn't result in a change, must foot the bill.
Liberal lawyer Tom O'Neil requested costs of $5,000 from the Progressive Conservatives for the Saint John Harbour recount.
McLellan declined to rule on the request for costs. Instead, he instructed O'Neil to request money from Elections New Brunswick, suggesting the agency should pony up, given the election night "confusion."
On election night, the use of an untested software by Elections New Brunswick to transmit results recorded through the automated vote-counting tabulator system saw vote counts stall and then appear to drop before finally concluding.
The resulting confusion and delays meant it was about five hours after the polls closed before Elections New Brunswick could declare Brian Gallant's Liberals had won a majority government, with 27 seats compared to 21 for the Progressive Conservatives and a single Green Party seat.
With the resulting confusion, the Progressive Conservatives applied for recounts in six ridings, while People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin applied for a recount in Fredericton-Grant Lake, which he lost by 26 votes to Tory Pam Lynch.
Recount important for 'public confidence'
The margin of victory in the Saint Harbour recount was the same as the 71-vote victory Doherty posted over Killen in the Sept. 22 election.
The manual recount turned up only one mistake — one too many votes for Green Party candidate Wayne Dryer.
Still, Killen says the recount was worthwhile.
"There was so much confusion that night and such a kerfuffle it was important I think, from the perspective of public confidence, to go through this process," he said.
Elections New Brunswick returning officer John Campbell was ecstatic about the recount results.
"Even [election] night I was fully confident in our process — that it was fair, that the numbers would bear out," he said.
"And after two days of going through all the ballots, it beared out right to the last number, so I'm quite confident and quite thankful it turned out this way."
The closest race was in Saint John East, where Liberal Gary Keating recorded an eight-vote win over PC Gary Savoie. One additional vote went to Keating through the recount.
Recounts are also taking place in Charlotte-Campobello, Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou, Fredericton North and Fredericton-Grand Lake.
Those results are expected over the weekend.