Mill Woods ballot recount starts
Final tally in Edmonton riding won by Liberal Sohi expected in a few days
One of the final battles of last week’s federal election is taking place in the riding of Edmonton Mill Woods.
The margin of victory was just 79 votes, and now Elections Canada employees and lawyers and scrutineers for Conservative candidate Tim Uppal and presumptive winner, Liberal Amarjeet Sohi, are sealed in a room recounting more the than 49,000 ballots cast Oct. 19.
It is one of two judicial recounts — another will take place in the Ontario riding of Barrie-Spring-water-Oro-Medonte — ordered after the Liberals won a majority government last Monday.
Sohi, a city councillor, was declared the winner after the initial count, 80 votes ahead of incumbent Uppal. The next day, that number was revised to 79 votes in the official results.
But after Queen’s Bench Justice Brian Burrows received 18 signed affidavits from Uppal’s scrutineers, citing ballots on the floor, mismatched tallies and frazzled clerks refusing to recount, he ordered a judicial recount at the office of the returning officer in Mill Woods.
The recount, closed to the media, may continue for several days. The the results will be made available once it’s over.
The affidavits presented to Justice Burrows paint a picture of poorly trained staff making mistakes in a rush to finish. Several scrutineers reported unsealed ballot boxes and instances in which poll counters would come up with different numbers on their first and second count, and refused to count a third time to verify.
The count on the final advance poll wasn’t checked at all because the clerks were running out of time, Jasbir Mann said in his statement.
In total, 49,481 ballots were counted in Edmonton Mill Woods, filling 193 ballot boxes. Of them, 263 ballots were recorded as spoiled. Some of those ballots may be disputed during the recount.
For example, if there are markings on a ballot for two candidates and the candidates’ lawyers disagree, they may prepare legal arguments and present them to the judge, who makes the final decision on how a ballot should be recorded. The decision can be appealed.
The recount of the ballots is only handled by Elections Canada staff with Justice Burrows overseeing the process at the returning office. Liberal lawyer Jack Siegel estimated that there were about 24 Elections Canada staff and eight volunteer scrutineers for the Liberals and Conservatives in the room.
Both he and Uppal’s lawyer, former Alberta Justice Minister Jonathan Denis, said they could not talk specifically about the recount process.
“My client wants the voters to be confident as to the results, whoever the winner is,” said Denis, who also represented Uppal in a 2004 judicial recount. In that election, Uppal applied for a recount after losing the Edmonton-Beaumont riding to Liberal David Kilgour by 131 votes. The recount confirmed Kilgour the winner by 134 votes.
Siegel, who flew in from Toronto, said he’s been part of at least a dozen previous recounts and guessed this one would take between three and five days to resolve.
Elections Canada said Tuesday there will also be a judicial recount in the Ontario riding after Conservative Alex Nuttall was declared the winner by 108 votes over Liberal Brian Tamblyn. That recount, which was requested by one of the candidates, will begin Friday.
Judicial recounts are mandatory if the vote margin difference between the first and second-place candidates is less than one one-thousandth of the valid votes cast.
They can also be done at the request of a candidate if there are questions about miscounted or rejected ballots, as is the case in Edmonton Mill Woods.