Election Act was violated, B.C. NDP alleges
Liberal Surrey-Fleetwood candidate Thind denies claims of `corrupt voting'
Elections B.C. is looking into allegations that a B.C. Liberal candidate in Surrey and his supporters were trying collect voters' personal information and request mailin voting packages online on their behalf.
The investigation comes after a lawyer for the B.C. NDP sent a letter to Elections B.C. with a complaint about the actions of Surrey-Fleetwood candidate Garry Thind and concerns about “numerous, deliberate violations of the (Election) Act, including the corrupt voting and false declaration sections.”
In an email, Elections B.C. spokesman Andrew Watson acknowledged the letter and said that the office takes every complaint it receives seriously and is taking “appropriate and ongoing steps to address this matter.”
“At this stage we have no evidence to suggest that requests for vote-bymail packages were actually made on a voter's behalf,” said Watson.
To order a mail-in voting package online, a voter must provide their name, address and a piece of government-issued identification. To vote, an individual must include their date of birth on the certification package containing their ballot. A person can only request and vote with their own mail-in package. After a ballot has been marked and placed inside of a secrecy sleeve and sealed in a certification envelope, the voter must sign the envelope and provide their date of birth, or their ballot won't be counted.
“The vote-by-mail system in B.C. has several checks and balances to ensure the integrity of the process,” said Watson.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Elections B.C. has received a greater number of requests than usual for vote-by-mail packages — more than 450,000 so far.
In a screen capture of a message posted in a WhatsApp group called “Garry Thind-Fleetwood,” someone named Baldeep Jhand states, “As a team our main task is to register as many voters as we can by ordering ballots in the mail.”
It asks members to identify voters in the riding and collect personal information, including name, date of birth, address, phone, email address and a piece of identification, such as a driver's licence, social insurance number or health card number.
“We need to register each and every voter via internet,” Jhand wrote.
“Election BC (sic) will deliver ballot paper via mail to registered address. I hope as a team we will be able to gather a good number of voters.”
Jhand is listed as one of the group administrators, along with Thind. The B.C. Liberals have described Jhand, a Surrey realtor, as “a supporter with no formal role in the campaign.”
Reached by telephone, Jhand acknowledged that he was working on Thind's campaign, but declined to answer questions about the nature of his involvement or the allegations.
B.C. NDP candidate Ravi Kahlon, who is running for re-election in Delta North, called the allegations very serious and said there is no need for any candidate or politi
cal party to be collecting people's personal information.
“This information could be used to vote on other people's behalf,” said Kahlon.
According to the Election Act, someone convicted of voter fraud can be fined up to $20,000 or face two years in prison. They could also be prohibited from holding office as an MLA for up to seven years and prohibited from voting for up to seven years.
Asked about the allegations at a campaign event in Surrey, NDP Leader John Horgan said, “Well, I'm always concerned when people try to play the system.”
However, he said he's confident that the issue will be thoroughly investigated and that British Columbians can have faith in the system and that there will be a “fair and free” election.
Watson said that Thind's campaign and the B.C. Liberals were contacted and they denied the allegations, saying no voter information has been received and no requests for vote-by-mail packages were made on behalf of voters.
“The B.C. Liberal Party has sent a reminder to all of their candidates and campaign managers that campaigns must not request a vote-bymail package on a voter's behalf,” Watson said. “We will also be following up with all political parties and candidates to remind them of correct practices in relation to voting by mail.”
During a news conference in Port Moody on Wednesday, B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson said he learned about the allegations only on Wednesday morning.
“As this mail-in ballot phenomenon gets the attention of the public and the voters there is going to be some confusion, but we have to be clear that it is the obligation of the candidates to follow the law and we expect that of them,” he said.
Asked if he was concerned that Thind broke the law, Wilkinson replied that he did not want to speculate on what happened.
“It's been reported to Elections B.C. and they will make their determinations, and we will of course respect them. We do hope for a very quick response from Elections B.C. under the circumstances.”