November 26, 2013 By-Election Report: Carbonear - Harbour Grace
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November 26, 2013 By-Election Report: Carbonear - Harbour Grace Office of the Chief Electoral Officer March 20, 2014 Honourable Ross Wiseman Speaker House of Assembly Main Floor, East Block Confederation Building St. John’s, NL Dear Speaker: Section 214 of the Elections Act, 1991 states that, “the Chief Electoral Officer shall publish within 9 months after each general election and each by-election a book containing pertinent statistics of the election, including poll by poll results of each electoral district.” In accordance with this, I am pleased to present you with this report on the November 26, 2013 by-election in the electoral district of Carbonear – Harbour Grace. I have arranged for copies to be distributed to all Members of the House of Assembly. I trust this meets with your approval. Sincerely, Victor Powers Chief Electoral Officer On Monday, November 4, 2013, a Writ of Election was issued for a by-election in the electoral district of Carbonear – Harbour Grace. The by-election, set for November 26, 2013, was called to fill a vacancy resulting from the resignation of Progressive Conservative Member of the House of Assembly, Jerome Kennedy, on October 2, 2013. The preliminary list of electors for the district, dated November 4, 2013, contained 8955 names. Updates to the list continued during the election period until 8 p.m. on November 19, 2013 (Advance Poll day), resulting in a final revised list of electors containing 9140 names. The final revised list included electors who applied to vote by Special Ballot, voted at the advance polls and applied to be added to the list (and also included other changes such as elector moves or corrections to electors’ names and/or addresses). On November 20, 2013, the final revised list was given to the district Returning Officer for distribution to the political parties and candidates. This list was used by the Returning Officer and all election officials as the Official List of Electors on polling day. Official Nomination day was Saturday, November 16, 2013. At the close of nominations three candidates had complet- ed the official nomination process and were added to the ballot for the by-election: Jack Harrington - Progressive Conservative Party Sam Slade - Liberal Party Charlene Sudbrink - New Democratic Party Voters in the by-election had the opportunity to vote by one of three methods: • at one of the 36 regular polls held on November 26, 2013 • at one of the four advance polls held on November 19, 2013 • by Special Ballot (from November 4, 2013 to November 22, 2013) Special Ballot applications were available on the Elections Newfoundland and Labrador website, by mail, or during specified hours at Elections Newfoundland and Labrador’s head office in St. John’s or the District Returning Office in Carbonear-Harbour Grace. Once a Special Ballot application was approved, a Special Ballot Voting kit was issued, and the applicant was then unable to vote by any other method. A completed Special Ballot voting kit could be returned by mail or dropped off at either of the above noted office locations within the specified deadlines. A total of 267 Special Ballot applications were processed at Special Ballot locations. Of the 267 applications processed, all 267 ballots were returned by the specified deadlines. A total of 776 ballots were cast at the four advance polls held on November 19, 2013. 530 ballots were cast at the two advance polls in Carbonear, and 246 ballots were cast at the two advance polls in Harbour Grace. A total of 4732 ballots were cast at the 36 regular polls held on November 26, 2013. A combined total of 609 electors were sworn in at the advance polls, Special Ballot polls and regular polls on polling day. The preliminary count on election night indicated a total of 5492 votes were cast resulting in 2313 votes for Jack Harrington, 2769 votes for Sam Slade and 410 votes for Charlene Sudbrink. The official addition of the votes took place on Friday, November 29, 2013, at the district Returning Office which con- firmed the preliminary vote counts were correct for all candidates. Therefore, the official results for the by-election (which represented a 60.3 per cent turnout) were: Jack Harrington - 2313 Sam Slade - 2769 Charlene Sudbrink - 410 Rejected ballots - 16 Total - 5508 On December 11, 2013, Liberal candidate Sam Slade was sworn in as a member of the House of Assembly. Subsequent to the by-election and prior to the completion of this report, representation in the House of Assembly changed as follows: • On January 20, 2014, Mount Pearl South MHA Paul Lane, who had been sitting as a Progressive Conservative in the House of Assembly, announced his decision to join the Liberal Party. • On February 4, 2014, Dale Kirby and Christopher Mitchelmore, sitting as independent members since October 29, 2013, joined the Liberal Party. • On February 28, 2014, Virginia Waters MHA and former Premier Kathy Dunderdale, who had been sitting as a Progressive Conservative in the House of Assembly, resigned her seat. Currently, representation in the House of Assembly consists of 33 Progressive Conservative Members, 11 Liberal Members, 3 New Democratic Members, and 1 vacant seat. The Chief Electoral Officer would like to extend appreciation to the district staff for overseeing an efficient by-election: Debbie Reynolds (Returning Officer), Linda Murphy (Election Clerk) and Ruth Colbourne (Special Ballot Officer). Thanks are also extended to the many other district election workers and to the staff at the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer for a job well done. NOVEMBER 26, 2013 BY-ELECTION POLLING DIVISION RECAPITULATION OF VOTES FOR THE ELECTORAL DISTRICT OF CARBONEAR-HARBOUR GRACE BALLOTS COUNTED ELIGIBLE VOTERS HARRINGTON, SLADE, SUDBRINK, NO. POLLING DIVISION REVISED SWEAR IN Jack Sam Charlene REJECTED TOTAL LIST AT POLLS PC Lib NDP BALLOTS BALLOTS 1 Freshwater (Carbonear) 191 6 37 49 26 0 112 2 Victoria 335 19 57 107 9 0 173 3 Victoria 333 9 61 104 18 0 183 4 Victoria 313 23 72 95 22 0 189 5 Victoria 335 27 75 113 7 0 195 6 Carbonear 314 28 61 124 15 0 200 7 Carbonear 326 23 52 68 5 0 125 8 Carbonear 290 24 75 87 4 1 167 9 Carbonear 285 31 94 63 6 2 165 10 Carbonear 252 17 75 48 8 0 131 11 Carbonear 259 20 37 71 3 0 111 12 Carbonear 298 21 56 76 14 0 146 13 Carbonear 243 0 42 64 6 0 112 14 Carbonear 240 7 32 45 7 1 85 15 Carbonear 220 12 24 56 10 0 90 16 Carbonear 262 9 25 85 11 0 121 17 Carbonear 231 20 42 66 14 0 122 18 Carbonear 239 23 40 95 6 1 142 19 Carbonear 313 17 40 90 8 0 138 20 Bristol's Hope 137 18 57 31 2 1 91 21 Harbour Grace 321 15 97 58 11 0 166 22 Harbour Grace 267 12 64 43 16 1 124 23 Harbour Grace 222 56 50 42 15 0 107 24 Harbour Grace 174 21 36 32 9 2 79 25 Harbour Grace 264 9 51 38 9 0 98 26 Harbour Grace 254 7 47 44 7 0 98 27 Harbour Grace 273 13 33 54 10 1 98 NOVEMBER 26, 2013 BY-ELECTION POLLING DIVISION RECAPITULATION OF VOTES FOR THE ELECTORAL DISTRICT OF CARBONEAR-HARBOUR GRACE BALLOTS COUNTED ELIGIBLE VOTERS HARRINGTON, SLADE, SUDBRINK, NO. POLLING DIVISION REVISED SWEAR IN Jack Sam Charlene REJECTED TOTAL LIST AT POLLS PC Lib NDP BALLOTS BALLOTS 28 Riverhead, Harbour Grace 232 5 50 45 10 0 105 29 Riverhead, Harbour Grace 204 9 55 29 9 0 93 30 Harbour Grace South 209 13 69 53 6 1 129 31 Bryant's Cove 309 4 50 65 6 0 121 32 Tilton 201 12 48 33 16 0 97 33 Tilton 195 3 49 32 12 0 93 34 Spaniard's Bay 264 4 67 33 8 0 108 35 Spaniard's Bay 295 13 95 39 8 0 142 36 Upper Island Cove 40 - 5 4 0 0 9 37 Advance Poll - Carbonear 71 161 18 1 251 38 Advance Poll - Carbonear 42 70 194 14 1 279 39 Advance Poll - Harbour Grace 6 73 45 9 1 128 40 Advance Poll - Harbour Grace 11 62 47 9 0 118 41 Special Ballots -- 117 141 7 2 267 TOTALS 9140 609 2313 2769 410 16 5508 CUBBAGE’S LANE (ALSO KNOWN AS WHITE ROCK LANE); Total Electors for CARBONEAR - HARBOUR GRACE: 9140 .