Stewiacke election results to stand in face of ‘illegal’ voting

Illegal ballots cast in Stewiacke during last fall’s municipal voting are not sufficient to warrant a new election, a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has ruled.

Seven votes were cast improperly in the Oct. 15 election on behalf of other electors, using electronic voting, by two individuals who were not qualified as “friend voters” under election laws, Justice Michael Wood said, in a written ruling released this week.

But Wood said the number of votes involved was not enough to set aside the initial Stewiacke results and therefore would not warrant conducting a re-election.

“If the irregularities are such that the result of the election is not called into question, I do not believe a new election should be called,” he wrote in his decision.

Wood ruled that no evidence had been provided to show the actual outcome of the election had been compromised because of the number of votes involved and because it is accepted that the proxy votes cast were done as the electors in question had instructed.

Six of the votes were “illegally” cast (through telephone voting) by Judy Stoddart and, one was cast by Janice Peterson. All seven votes were disallowed under Wood’s decision.

Wendy Robinson won her second term as mayor by a margin of 14 votes. Eleven candidates ran for six councillor positions and the seventh-place candidate lost by a margin of 12 votes.

“I am relieved that there won’t be a re-election for many reasons,” Robinson told the Truro Daily News. “And I thought the decision was very well thought out and well written so that is understandable for anybody who wants to read it. It seems quite clear to me.”

The court case was launched by 11 individuals, including former Councillor Pam Osborne (who ran against Robinson for the mayor’s position) and Audrey Armsworthy (who ran as a candidate for councillor). The remaining plaintiffs include Nora Howell Habkirk, David Habkirk, Sean Howell, Terry Stanislow, David Baker, Charles Spurr, Kelly Shephard, Theresa Rafuse and Shannon Rafuse.

The defendants were named as Robinson, Stoddart, town CAO Sheldon Dorey in his capacity as returning officer, Charlotte Fleming, in her capacity as clerk, and successful councillor candidates Roseanne Chapman, Mary Commo, Susan Creelman, Chad Ramsey, Rebecca Rogers-Laing, Russell Stoddart, Natasha Head, David LeBlanc, Anna Nibby-Woods and Ashlee Rhae Parks.

The plaintiffs had argued that the court should conclude the entire election results be called into question on the assumption that all seven improper votes had been cast in favour of Robinson and the sixthplace council candidate. And, further, that those numbers be deducted from the totals and added to the total for the next highest candidate in each race, which would have changed the overall election results.

Wood disagreed and while he did deduct the seven improper votes from the election results, he let the overall numbers stand.

The illegal voting did not result from any intentional wrongdoing, Wood determined, but because the proper protocol was not followed in terms of how electronic voting should be carried out.

“I think it was a lack of, I’m going to use the term, ignorance, of the law in terms of the people that did it were unaware that they were doing something wrong,” Robinson said.

“Clearly, going forward we will have to take a look at that and have more information around the process. But electronic voting is fairly new and the people involved were fairly elderly so it’s easy to see how things got a little bit mixed up.”