One member, seven votes

The National Post reports that Quebec delegate selection in the Lib leadership race was based in many cases on an exceedingly small number of votes, including one riding where two people elected a slate of 14 delegates:

In one northern Quebec riding, just two federal Liberals bothered to vote in recent delegate elections, but their votes sure counted. Together, they elected a slate of 14 delegates to support Bob Rae at the leadership convention in early December.

In other Quebec ridings, the turnout of Liberal members was barely better, according to Liberal sources.

Fewer than 100 members cast ballots in at least seven other ridings in the province, including several in and around Montreal -- the party's last Quebec toehold. But under party rules, each riding sends 14 delegates to the convention, regardless of whether two people or 200 people voted...

Other low turnouts, according to a Liberal source familiar with the results, included the ridings of Repentigny, where 18 people voted, Vercheres-Les Patriotes (21 voters), Beauce (22 voters), Beauharnois-Salaberry (42 voters), Compton-Stanstead (45 voters), Trois-Rivieres (57 voters) and Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Lachine (94 voters).

One would think the Libs would want to open up the process enough both to show some examples of better turnout, and to suggest ways to get people more interested. But sadly, the Libs instead seem to have bought into the Con view that it's better to try to suppress the facts than deal with them:

Party officials in Ottawa have declared that no official numbers will be released on voter turnout during the Liberals' "Super Weekend," on Sept. 29-Oct. 1, to choose convention delegates. But the leadership camps are aware of the tallies and recognize that Quebec turnout was particularly low...

Tait Simpson, a national spokesman for the party, said the party considers the voter turnout an internal matter. "It's none of anybody's business. We don't have to release it and we're not going to," he said.

It's true enough (as argued by another Lib spokesperson) that some aberrations are likely to pop up in any campaign, with the result that the ridings in question shouldn't be seen as a severe distortion of the leadership race generally.

But from an organizational standpoint, it's still remarkable that some ridings seem to have completely escaped both the efforts of the leadership campaigns, and enough individual interest to lead to a reasonable turnout - particularly in ridings which had upwards of 6,000 Lib voters just months ago. And based on that lack of interest, it's far from certain that the Libs are sufficiently organized or motivated to capitalize on the Cons' current free-fall.