By Anna Burns
Elections BC has filed its response to a losing B.C. Conservative candidate who filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court claiming alleged election “irregularities” in the provincial election in October.
Honveer Singh Randhawa, who lost Surrey-Guildford by 22 votes to New Democrat Garry Begg following a judicial recount, filed a petition at the New Westminster Supreme Court on Jan. 13 asking the Supreme Court of British Columbia to declare Begg’s election invalid under Section 150 of the Election Act.
One clause under that section allows for an election to be “declared invalid because it was not conducted in accordance with this Act or a regulation under this Act.”
Randhawa has taken aim specifically at 22 mail-in ballots associated with a care facility in Surrey.
The response from Elections BC filed on June 19 in the BC Supreme Court noted that its staff had noted that the same email and phone number was used to request the 22 mail-in packets.
“However, the team also noted that the request came from a care facility with resident individuals,” reads the petition.
The staff at Elections BC approved the request in light of the recent changes to the Election Act that allowed for an individual to help “more than one voter with a mail-in voting package provided the individual was appointed as an election official using the powers in s. 77(6).”
he 22 mail-in ballots were sent to the home. “However, the Team failed to follow up with the District Electoral Officer, Ms. Malhi, to confirm that an individual at (the facility) was appointed as an election official,” according to Elections B.C.’s response.
The petition noted that all 22 certification envelopes for the mail-in ballots were signed, but three of them were not counted as they did not “meet certain requirements for counting.”
The envelopes did not identify anyone who had assisted the voters.
Randhawa’s lawyer, Sunny Uppal, issued a press release Tuesday (June 24) in response.
“In their response materials, Elections BC acknowledges that they sent mail-in ballots to a mental health facility without ensuring that an election official was present, as required by the Election Act,” Uppal said. “That this constitutes a serious irregularity in which one individual ordered 22 mail-in ballots on behalf of 22 vulnerable individuals without any checks and balances being in place to ensure those individuals were not being used as a tool for election fraud.”
The post Elections BC Files Response to Surrey Election Court Challenge – Case Focuses on 22 Mail-in Ballots Sent To One facility in Surrey-Guildford appeared first on Easton Spectator.
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