Update 2/13: In-person voting has been suspended for Saturday's election with mail-in voting continuing. The B117 variant of the COVID-19 coronavirus has been spotted in the province.
Newfoundland and Labrador had February 13 on the calendar for an election that needed to be called before August 19. The writ was dropped; the campaign was going reasonably smooth. Then the COVID-19 cases started climbing this week.
Monday had 11 new cases, significant but not huge. Tuesday brought 30 cases; Wednesday had 53 cases; Thursday reached 100 cases. Each of these numbers are unique for their days.
There were issues of people being in quarantine who were then unable to vote. A high school in Mount Pearl that saw a rise in cases. There were mass staffing shortages at Elections NL.
The affected districts are all in the Avalon Peninsula (southeastern Newfoundland, including St. John's). Those districts are: Cape St. Francis; Carbonear – Trinity – Bay de Verde; Conception Bay East – Bell Island; Conception Bay South; Ferryland; Harbour Grace – Port de Grave; Harbour Main; Mount Pearl North; Mount Pearl – Southlands; Mount Scio; Placentia – St. Mary's; St. John's Centre; St. John's East – Quidi Vidi; St. John's West; Topsail - Paradise; Virginia Waters – Pleasantville; Waterford Valley; and Windsor Lake.
The election will go as planned on Saturday for the other 22 districts. The results won't be known until everyone else votes.
Special ballot deadlines are now extended so more people can vote by mail. If approved, voters have to mail the ballots and have them arrive by February 25.
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New Brunswick, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan pulled off pandemic elections in 2020 but none of those provinces had a significant outbreak during the election process. The numbers may seem small compared to Ontario, Quebec, and multiple U.S. states. Figure that the 195 cases in the previous 5 days is half of 390, the province total number of cases in all of 2020. Outside of St. John's, the province is rather rural and remote.
Having an election postponed is a significant and highly rare decision. Politicians in Canada, such as Premier Andrew Furey, always point out that decisions are up to the elections board, in this case Elections NL.
Bruce Chaulk, chief electoral officer of Elections NL, said in-person voting would be rescheduled in 2 weeks if public health conditions improve. We don't know when there will be a specific date; presumably that election date will be on a Saturday. The voting was set up for a Saturday to not interfere with schools since some voting happens at schools. You might recall that Saskatchewan closed schools on their election date for the same reason.
St. John's got hit with a huge snowstorm, even by Newfoundland standards, about a year ago. That would have disrupted an election.
We will be ready to report the results of the election. When a date is announced, we will update this story.
photo credit: CBC News