The amount of rejected ballots in the riding of Chatham-Kent-Leamington (CKL) this provincial election went through the roof compared to previous votes.
Elections Ontario is reporting 1,791 rejected ballots in the riding this election compared to under 250 in each of the last four provincial votes. Almost half of the rejected ballots were cast at advanced polls throughout the riding.
Audrey Festeryga was added by the Ontario Liberal Party (OLP) just hours before the nominations closed, but she withdrew from the race a couple of weeks later after the Ontario NDP repeatedly accused her of using fraudulent signatures.
The Election Act states that any ballots cast for a candidate who has withdrawn are void and shall be considered rejected ballots. Elections Ontario also said a notice of the withdrawal shall be posted in a clearly visible place in every polling place in the electoral district.
A long-time political science professor at the University of Toronto said the high number of rejected ballots is highly unusual.
Professor Emeritus Nelson Wiseman also noted a candidate withdrawing so close to the election is also unusual.
"The reason there were so few rejections in earlier elections in Chatham-Kent-Leamington is that such a situation did not occur," said Professor Wiseman. "There is nothing to fix here. The Liberal party messed up in filing her nomination paper, a last-minute nomination before the legal deadline, without getting the required signatures, a likely violation of the law."
Elections Ontario previously said it was investigating the fraudulent signatures, but the NDP, who asked for the investigation, has not heard about any outcomes yet.
"The concerns raised by the Ontario NDP are serious. Electors in Ontario ought to know whether there was an apparent violation of the Election Act by the OLP and/or Ms. Festeryga," wrote the NDP's lawyer in a letter to Elections Ontario. "Ms. Festeryga’s withdrawal and her public statement that the decision was based on her “personal sense of morals and ethics” only add to the suspicion that false or misleading information was provided to the CKL returning officer, in violation of the Election Act."
The NDP pressed on urging Elections Ontario to continue investigating Festeryga to identify any irregularities or systemic issues which could harm the integrity of Ontario’s electoral process.