Voting recount moves ahead on Magdalen Islands
Judge authorizes recount for 18-vote difference
A Quebec court judge has authorized a recount in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine riding, where Parti Québécois candidate Joël Arseneau won by a margin of 18 votes, ahead of Liberal candidate Maryse Lapierre.
Lapierre filed a request for a recount on Thursday morning in Havre-Aubert.
In the request, Lapierre's campaign director, Guylain Cyr, said 152 ballots in the riding were rejected out of a total of 7,796 — "an abnormally high number," she said.
Ballot boxes also went missing for two hours after polls closed, Cyr said in her request to the court, obtained by Radio-Canada.
A poll clerk also testified under oath that her colleagues were "more or less focused on the task at hand," and were also "careless" during the ballot count for the advance polls.
The recount will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 9, in Havre-Aubert.
Other possible recounts
Coalition Avenir Québec said it is still considering whether it will ask for a recount in Duplessis, on Quebec's North Shore, where the PQ's Lorraine Richard was re-elected with 126 more votes than CAQ candidate Line Cloutier.
Meanwhile the Parti Québécois has also filed a request seeking a recount in the Gaspé riding, where its candidate Méganne Perry Mélançon lost to the Liberal's Alexandre Boulay by 132 votes.
The PQ wants the ballots at polling station 61 to be recounted.
The party said at that polling station, Boulay garnered 194 votes, and not a single one went to the PQ, Coalition Avenir Québec or Québec Solidaire. Four ballots were rejected.
The party's lawyers said this doesn't match up with information party officials gathered on the ground.
Several citizens, as well as members of the PQ riding association in Gaspé, confirmed they voted for the PQ at that polling station, the PQ said.
The party is expecting to get a response from a judge next week.
If the Parti Québécois wins the seat on a recount, the party would have 10 seats at the National Assembly, the same number as Québec Solidaire.
It would still fall short of the 12 seats or 20 per cent of the popular vote needed to regain official party status.
With files from Radio-Canada