This is in reply to a letter to the editor published in l’Acadie Nouvelle on Thursday, December 1, 2022 entitled Elections NB can and must do better.

First and foremost, I want to publicly acknowledge the mistake made in our first mailing to 260,000 voters at the start of the November 28, 2022 election, and apologize to New Brunswickers. I acknowledge and deeply apologize for the confusion our error has caused. As an organization, Elections New Brunswick has already identified and implemented the changes needed to avoid such a failure in the future. As after every election, we will review the event as a whole and identify areas and processes for future improvement. Continuous improvement is an essential part of our corporate culture.

However, as Chief Electoral Officer of New Brunswick, I must correct the inaccurate information in Mr. Gravel’s editorial. Inaccuracies that I believe threaten and undermine confidence in the organization and the electoral process that I oversee. That’s one thing I can’t let go of without correcting it.

In paragraph 6 of his editorial, Mr. Gravel says that when Elections New Brunswick made the mistake of sending false information, we tried to sweep the issue under the rug. That’s absolutely not true. Immediately after learning of the error, we issued a press release and I publicly claimed responsibility for the error. In fact, on Thursday October 6, 2022, an article was published on page 6 of Acadie Nouvelle, based on the press release published on October 5, 2022 on the government intelligence service. I have not turned down a single request to interview a reporter on this subject and have taken every opportunity to acknowledge our mistake, apologize for it, explain what happened and what actions we could reasonably take in a timely manner to inform the public.

In paragraph 7, Mr. Gravel alleges that the voter information cards were sent out at the last minute; By making this assertion, Mr. Gravel misunderstands or distorts the reality of the electoral process. According to the Local Elections Act, candidates had until 5:00 p.m. on Monday 31 October 2022 to withdraw their candidacy. This means that Elections New Brunswick was only able to produce the final list of candidates after this deadline. Only then could we provide our supplier with the information to prepare the 175 unique ballot types required for this nationwide election. Likewise, the data required for the voter information cards could not be produced before that date as selection procedures could be filled out by acclamation, which was done. Voter information cards were prepared and delivered by Canada Post 15 days before Election Day, in accordance with the deadlines set out in the Local Elections Act since 2007, and as soon as possible after the deadline for candidates to resign.

In the same paragraph, Mr Gravel claims that there has been “no real communication campaign” to encourage rural voters to do their civic duty. Again, this is an inaccurate statement. Elections New Brunswick worked with a marketing agency to launch a major social media campaign specifically targeting electoral districts to promote key voting opportunities ahead of the early election days and on election day. In addition, we ran advertisements on radio stations across the province to remind people of the same important dates. As chief electoral officer, I have also given interviews to numerous media organizations prior to primary election days and on election day to encourage eligible voters to vote. We did nothing to keep this election a secret.

In paragraph 9 of the editorial, Mr. Gravel refers to a local service district chairperson who said he received a call for nominations from Elections New Brunswick in the mail after the nominations were closed. Again, I believe your paper needs better fact checking. The postcard in question was produced and distributed by the Department of Environment and Local Government. Elections New Brunswick played no role in sending this postcard.

The entire Elections New Brunswick team and I take seriously our responsibility to build public awareness and trust in the election process, principles that are at the forefront of every election we conduct.

Kimberly A Poffenroth
Chief Returning Officer