THREAD: As Co-Chair of the NL Liberal Leadership Election, let me clarify the process in relation to the crystallization of the voters list. Firstly, everyone can indeed be a member or supporter of the Liberal Party of NL. #nlpoli

To do so, one must support the aims and objectives of the party, which include policy stances and, among other things, that one plans to support the Liberal party in the next election. There are other eligibility criteria as well.

The voters list is vetted before the final voters list is set in accordance with those criteria. This is not new, it occurred in 2013 as well. We need to confirm certain information on the registration forms as part of the process.

By way of obvious examples, we have to make sure registrants are real people rather than graveyard names or names plucked from a phone book at random. We have to ensure people are not trying to vote twice. This is ordinary course stuff.

During this race, we became aware of people who, by their own admission, did not support the aims and objectives of the party and were seeking to solicit registrations from others who supported other political parties. This was not necessarily at the behest of either candidate.

This is contrary to the statement on the registration form that one supports the aims and objectives of the Liberal Party of NL.

The supporter category was effectively a method to bring flexible partisans into the tent. One might be a Liberal supporter in 2019, but might not have been in 2015 or might not be in 2024. Ask Paul Lane! However, one cannot be a supporter of multiple parties at once.

This gives rise to the concern that the party’s leadership process could potentially be infiltrated/hijacked by those who do not, and will not, support the party. This concern is remote, but requires due diligence.

The phone calls the party did to confirm information on registration forms is one aspect of a multifaceted approach to that due diligence process.

Some suggested that one did not need to take the declaration re aims and objectives seriously. As one example, somebody registered Ches Crosbie to vote in the Liberal Leadership Election. While we cannot say for certain, we are doubtful Ches Crosbie himself signed up to vote.

A specific case that was the subject of a now publicly available complaint by one of the candidates is generating discussion on social media today.

I’ll do my best to limit discussing individual cases, but that case did not spur the vetting efforts the party has undertaken ensure the integrity of its list. Further to that specific case, the voter registration list has not yet crystallized.

Everyone who registered and was deemed ineligible will have a chance to state their case and where that occurs, an independent appeals committee will make the final determination.

I expect that case will be the suspect of an appeal, which I encourage. Until that matter is concluded, that’s all I can say.

Amazingly, we have tens of thousands of registrations. I am very encouraged that we have comparable numbers of members/supporters as there was in the 2013 race, particularly where this campaign is shorter, had the COVID19 interruption, and there are less than half the candidates

I understand some are saying, “we are electing a Premier, everyone should vote!” While laudable, that is not how our system works. That stance is one seeking broad democratic reform. That is not a position the NLEC can possibly accommodate at this time.

Those arguments can be raised by party members at an AGM for constitutional amendments. Personally (i.e. not an NLEC position), I encourage that as there is clearly work to do.