Liberals won Terrebonne, Que., riding by 1 vote — but this woman’s Bloc ballot wasn’t counted

Elections Canada says it is investigating after a voter in a Quebec riding came forward with an envelope that had been returned to sender.

Inside was a vote for the Bloc Québécois in the Terrebonne riding, where, as it stands, incoming Liberal MP Tatiana Auguste was declared the winner by one vote after several recounts.

Elections Canada said the return address printed on this elector’s return envelope was incorrect — specifically, part of the postal code.

“We are still working to gather all the facts. We will be able to get back to you as soon as we have more information,” the agency said in a statement to CBC News.

The voter, however, remains irked by the situation. Terrebonne resident Emmanuelle Bossé said she sent in her vote on time for the April 28 federal election. 

“I wasn’t the one who got Elections Canada’s address wrong on the envelope,” she told Radio-Canada. “Elections Canada glued this label on the envelope. I had nothing to fill. I just had to put my vote in there.” 

She says she mailed her vote in on April 5 and it was returned to her on May 2. 

Auguste’s one-vote victory was highly unusual, making international headlines and attracting significant attention on social media, as she appeared to flip a riding long held by the Bloc.

On election night, Terrebonne initially went to Auguste by 35 votes. But after a standard validation process, the result flipped to the incumbent Bloc Québécois MP Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, by 44 votes.

This triggered an automatic judicial recount.

A few days later, the results of the recount showed that Auguste had won by a single vote.

“I think it’s a first in recent history,” said political commentator Frédéric Bérard.

To recap: on election day, voters go to polling stations and cast their ballots. Once the polls close, Elections Canada workers hand count the ballots and report the results to a returning officer. The results are then posted online.

Next comes the validation process.

This is when Elections Canada double-checks and verifies the numbers reported on election night, looking for errors or discrepancies before making the result official.

A win by less than 0.1 per cent of the overall vote automatically triggers a recount.

“That will be overseen by a judge, and the candidates, their lawyers, some scrutineers and electoral officials will all be present,” said Holly Ann Garnett, a political science professor at Queen’s University.

“They’re going to go through all the ballots, recount them and make sure the tally from election night holds.”

During the recount, the judge can rule on whether to keep or reject ballots that were disputed because they were considered spoiled or unclear.

“They’ll go through all of the ballots again so everyone has a second look,” Garnett said.

But Ara Karaboghossian, professor of political science at Vanier College, says there’s a chance this saga isn’t over. He said the election could be contested through Elections Canada’s contested elections process. He said irregularities can be the basis for contesting a decision 

“It says that if there is any type of irregularity that has an effect on the result, then the person can actually contest,” said Karaboghossian. “The elector can contest. A candidate can contest. It’s open to anybody.”

The case will hinge on what an irregularity is, but it seems to Karaboghossian that a misprint on a self-addressed, stamped envelope could fall into that category.

“For me, that consists of an irregularity,” said Karaboghossian. “But the second step is to determine whether that irregularity affected the result.”

An irregularity that doesn’t affect the outcome would be discarded. However, in this case, one vote would have made a difference in Terrebonne. Bossé would still need to take Elections Canada to court, and then it will be a legal decision, he explained.

“This is the interesting part,” Karaboghossian said. “We’re in uncharted waters.”

If the court does decide Bossé’s Bloc vote should be counted, “we should have a byelection,” he said. “That would be the logic that would apply, but again, this is where the uncharted waters come in.”