Elections and legitimacy

Unlike in one conspicuous neighbouring country, any known problems with elections in Canada have fallen short of completely altering the end result. But that doesn't mean there isn't a need to make sure the process is handled carefully, if B.C.'s recent provincial election is any indication:

Mayencourt’s 11 vote victory, Stevenson argued, was the result of a screw-up by elections officials that had left 71 absentee ballots improperly certified and thus uncounted. On June 20 Stevenson asked the BC Supreme Court to throw out the election and call a new one...

Eleven of the uncounted ballots were from incomplete certification envelopes. According to Porayko the envelopes had names, addresses and everything else, but hadn’t been signed. Whether that’s because the voters forgot to sign, or were never told to, we’ll never know.

The other 60, however, were never put in envelopes in the first place. On May 17, 60 misplaced voters turned up at St John’s United Church on Comox and Broughton, in the heart of the West End. Rather than have them fill out certification envelopes, an official working at the station stuck their ballots in with the rest from St John’s. When the District Electoral Officer found out, he immediately had the ballots taken out and set aside.

Because the mystery 60 had never filled out certification envelopes, there was no way to verify that they are who they claim, that they live in the riding and that they hadn’t already voted. On this point, the Elections Act is clear, a non-certified ballot cannot be counted, Porayko said. “As administrators we didn’t write the Act but we have to follow it,” she said. And following the act meant not counting the 60 ballots.

Stevenson has dropped his challenge in order to run again for City Council. And the Liberals won by enough of a margin that it wasn't a life-or-death struggle for the parties involved.

But imagine if the same scenario were to come up in an election with a configuration similar to the last federal one (or for that matter the last Saskatchewan one). While it's always tough to see the need for action when nobody's contesting the last results, it's imperative that election workers are impeccably trained to avoid errors like the one in Vancouver-Burrard - because eventually, it will make all the difference.