Candidates vow to push past voting controversy

CALGARY After a day that saw the United Conservative Party’s leadership election hit with concerns about the security of the voting process and allegations of “suspicious behaviour,” candidates said Friday evening they were putting the controversy behind them in the final push to get out the vote.

Voting in the leadership race will wrap Saturday, with the winner announced in the evening in Calgary.

But concerns were raised Thursday — the first day of voting — by the Doug Schweitzer and Brian Jean campaigns that the distribution of the personal identification numbers (PINs) needed to cast a ballot in the party’s online and telephone voting system was too loose. Both asked the party to temporarily suspend voting to address the issue.

In a further submission to the party Friday morning, Schweitzer’s campaign alleged that Kenney ’s campaign had circulated VPN software that could be used to circumvent safeguards against misuse of replacement PINs and allow multiple votes from the same computer.

“Secret use of software to falsify the sender’s IP address, expressly designed for the purpose of evading detection, is an obvious badge of suspicious behaviour,” said the submission, obtained by Postmedia.

The campaign cited a screenshot of a message allegedly from a Kenney campaign member that references downloading the software to allow more than five people to vote from the same computer.

But UCP officials said that even if the Kenney camp was issuing the software, it was not against the party rules.

Leadership election committee chairwoman Robyn Henwood said there was no evidence of any wrongdoing or problems with the party’s voting system, and that she was “frustrated” by the accusations that had been raised.

“There has been absolutely no indication that there has been fraud at all. Full stop,” she said.

In a statement Friday afternoon, Schweitzer said he had raised “legitimate concerns around gaps in the voting process.”

“We are going to continue to focus on turning out our supporters and look forward to the results on Saturday,” said the Calgary lawyer.

The Jean campaign had also raised concerns about the Kenney camp’s use of the software. But in an early evening post on Twitter, the former Wildrose leader urged voters to get out and vote.

“Questions about process have been resolved & am confident in integrity of system. One more day! We can win this!” tweeted Jean.

Kenney spokesman Blaise Boehmer, meanwhile, said the allegations made against the former PC leader’s campaign were “without merit.”

The UCP’s system — the same one used in the summer referendum where Progressive Conservative members voted to join with the Wildrose — required members to register by last week. They were to be provided with a PIN, either by text, email or phone, that allowed them to vote. If they had not received their PIN, there is a help line to call to get a new number.

UCP executive director Janice Harrington said individuals aren’t able to simply call in to get another person’s PIN, because that would require having that member’s personal information. While the campaigns have that information, the party’s vendor is also tracking the requests for a new PIN, as well as the voting, and no irregularities have been detected, she said.

There has been absolutely no indication that there has been fraud at all. Full stop.