After four years, a Newfoundland man still fighting for his vote in the 2021 election

Whymarrh Whitby (left) and Alison Coffin stand outside the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court building in St. John's on Monday, March 3, 2025. The two are involved in a lawsuit alleging the 2021 provincial election was riddled with irregularities that ultimately denied Whitby his right to vote.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sarah Smellie

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A hearing today in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court ended exactly how Whymarrh Whitby hoped it wouldn’t: in another delay.

The St. John’s, N.L., man has spent the past four years embroiled in a slow-moving lawsuit that alleges flaws in the chaotic 2021 provincial election which denied him his right to vote.

Whitby says the legal process has nearly broken him, but he’s hanging on because he hopes lessons learned in the case will help protect everyone’s right to cast a ballot.

The suit is co-signed by former provincial NDP leader Alison Coffin, who lost her seat in the St. John’s East-Quidi Vidi district in 2021 by 53 votes.

Whitby says he never received a ballot after the 2021 provincial election was sideswiped by a COVID-19 outbreak, prompting election officials to cancel all in-person voting and shift to a mail-in vote.

Andrew Fitzgerald, a lawyer representing Elections NL, says the lawsuit is now moot with another provincial election due this year, and he’ll make that argument on March 20 when the case is back in court.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2025.

The Canadian Press