[EL] New Brunswick is Canada's Florida?

[David Lublin]

Dear Colleagues:

In tonight's provincial election, New Brunswick had problems with
electronic voting machines. The incomplete tally at just before midnight
(their time) shows the Liberals with a one seat majority and the
Progressive-Conservatives have already called for a hand recount:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/new-brunswick-votes-2014/new-brunswick-election-vote-count-stalls-with-liberals-and-pcs-in-dead-heat-1.2774357

And now, as I am writing this, the results have changed to the Liberals
with a clearer 27 seat majority.

After listening to the Chief Electoral Officer do an interview on CBC,
there appears to have been a glitch of some sort but they are unsure right
now as to the cause. (He was not the height of clarity.) Additionally, some
memory cards are still out in the province and have not yet been received
by Elections NB.

I am not 100% clear if voters cast ballots on electronic systems with
printed back up or a paper ballot that is then fed into an electronic
tabulator. It appears to be the second, as the Elections NB site indicates
that they vote on paper ballots (which the news seems to indicate are then
fed into some sort of electronic reader):

http://www1.gnb.ca/elections/en/faq/faq-e.asp?CATEGORYID=18&TYPE=2

Here is the little info on the Elections NB website about "technology" in
voting:

http://www1.gnb.ca/elections/en/faq/faq-e.asp?CATEGORYID=5&TYPE=2

Best,

David Lublin

-- 
David Lublin
Professor of Government
School of Public Affairs
American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave.
Washington, D.C. 20016
http://davidlublin.com/
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