Peachland recount hearing today

An application for a judicial recount of the Peachland mayoral vote will be held today at the Kelowna courthouse.

The hearing is expected to set a time and date for the recount and determine whether all mayoral ballots will be recounted or just the ballots for the top two candidates who ended up tied after Saturday’s election.

Mayoral candidates, their ofÀcial agents and legal counsel of the candidates are entitled to be present at the 11:30 a.m. hearing, according to information sent to the candidates.

Harry Gough and incumbent Cindy Fortin tied with 804 each after Saturday’s election. Eric Hall and Keith Thom Ànished further back with 372 and 346 votes, respectively.

If the judicial recount confirms the tie, the name of Peachland’s next mayor will be drawn from a hat. Here’s how that would work: — Fortin's name and Gough's name will be written on separate pieces of paper similar in size to the ballots used on election night

— The papers will be folded similarly, so the names are not visible

— The papers will be placed in a container, with the container then shaken

— The judge will tell another person in the courtroom not associated with either Gough’s or Fortin’s campaign to draw one piece of paper

— The judge will read the name and declare that person mayor of Peachland for the next four years

These rules are laid down in the Local Government Act, which also allows for the presence during the judicial recount of Fortin, Gough, their election agents and lawyers, and town administrator Elsie Lemke.

“Other persons may be present only if permitted by the court,” reads part of an explanation of the recount process sent by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to The Daily Courier. So, at this point, it’s not known if the media or other members of the public will be able to watch the recount and the possible drawing of the name of Peachland’s next mayor.

Some observers have wondered why there won’t be a runoff election. The Local Government Act does provide for such a vote in the event of a tie.

But Peachland council earlier this year passed a bylaw prohibiting the holding of a run-off election. “In the event of a tie vote after a judicial recount, the tie vote will be resolved by conducting a lot in accordance with Section 151 of the Local Government Act, rather than by election,” reads part of Peachland Bylaw No. 2235, passed on May 22.

On election night, a preliminary count gave Gough 804 votes and Fortin 803.

But a veriÀcation process on Monday conÀrmed a problem with one of the voting machines. After one ballot was put into the machine for automatic tabulation, the device jammed, according to Peachland’s chief election officer Polly Palmer.

The machine Áashed a message telling the operator to re-insert the ballot. Before that could be done, however, the ballot was fed by the machine into the counting box.

“I could not be sure if the miss-fed ballot had been counted or not counted, so I documented it, and immediately contacted the voting machine company,” Palmer wrote in an email to The Daily Courier.

It now appears the machine did not, in fact, count that particular ballot. When a manual recount of the ballots was conducted on Monday, it emerged that Fortin had won one more vote than the counting machines indicated. A tie, at 804 votes was declared to be the ofÀcial result, setting the stage for the judicial recount.