The Saint John Law Courts building. (Brad Perry/Wave News)
There were new revelations on Thursday at a court challenge involving alleged voting irregularities in Saint John Harbour.
David Keirstead, president of the PC riding association for Saint John Harbour, was cross-examined by Lowe’s lawyers on Thursday.
Lowe narrowly defeated PC candidate Barry Ogden by 10 votes, but the Tories want the results overturned, alleging dozens of voting irregularities.
In December, a lawyer for Elections New Brunswick alleged a privileged document belonging to him was leaked to Ogden’s lawyer, Kelly VanBuskirk.
Keirstead, who also had access to the document, testified he got it from Mel Norton, another lawyer at VanBuskirk’s office.
Lowe spoke to reporters after Thursday’s court hearing.
“I have thought all along that there’s more to this than meets the eye, and I guess today proves that,” said Lowe.
VanBuskirk told reporters he had no idea how Norton got access to the document.
Saint John Harbour Liberal MLA Gerry Lowe speaks to reporters outside the Saint John Law Courts on April 11, 2019. (Brad Perry/Wave News)
During his testimony, Keirstead said he acted as a scrutineer for Lowe’s campaign at three different polling stations on Sept. 15 and 17 — the two advance voting days — and on election day, Sept. 24.
On Sept. 15, Keirstead said he noted poll workers were not asking voters to verbally state their name and address when arriving at the Boys and Girls Club polling station, He pointed it out to the poll supervisor, who ensured they were.
On election day, Keirstead said he and his wife noticed some anomalies with the so-called “bingo sheets,” which allow scrutineers to see who has already voted. He said some numbers were coming up more than once and others contained what he later agreed were “clerical errors.”
Court heard Keirstead did not perform any independent investigations surrounding the alleged voter irregularities listed in the affidavit.
Keirstead agreed the complaints in his affidavit deal with electoral procedures not being followed — not any wrongdoing by Lowe or his team.
“This just verifies that they now agree,” Lowe said. “Elections New Brunswick said it and now the people that brought this [court action] all on said it too.”
Five days have been set aside for a hearing starting June 24.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misquoted Kelly VanBuskirk as saying he had no idea how David Keirstead got access to the privileged document.
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