LILLEY: Liberals can't sweep voting irregularities under rug
· Toronto Sun
The mess that was the Ontario Liberal nomination race in Scarborough Southwest can’t simply be swept under the rug. The party is facing serious allegations of wrongdoing in the vote that happened over the weekend, and those must be answered, not ignored.
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Nate Erskine-Smith, who lost by 19 votes to Ahsanul Hafiz, has claimed that there were 34 more ballots counted than there were recorded voters. He also said there were “repeated and serious inconsistencies with respect to proof of identification” and said there were “problematic actions in the voting area.”
His chief scrutineer is a man named Andreas Katsouris, who has worked on elections, helping build democracies around the world and is highly critical of the process.
“There was an organized effort by Mr. Hafiz’s campaign on Saturday to direct, monitor and pressure people throughout the voting process, from the time they walked into the building to after they cast their ballots,” Katsouris said.
Persistent voting irregularities
He spoke of people taking phone and video calls and getting instructions while in the ballot booth, something Katsouris said he raised with party officials, but that his concerns were ignored.
“Dozens and dozens of asylum-seekers voted with their refugee claimant documents. Others were able to prove their addresses using just an apartment lease, sometimes two of which listed voters under 18,” Katsouris said.
“Other non-standard forms of ID accepted included digital report cards and Amazon orders. One man even voted with a foreign visitor’s visa.”
Non-citizens and non-residents were voting
Personally, I have a real problem with asylum-seekers and people using their visitors’ visas to vote, but sadly, that is allowed under the rules of the Ontario Liberal Party. In fact, it is allowed under the rules of all the major parties at Queen’s Park, who don’t have any requirement that those voting in nomination and leadership races be citizens.
To vote in a provincial election you need to be 18 and a citizen of Canada, to vote in a provincial nomination race you can be as young as 13 and an asylum-seeker or visitor from another country and your vote counts.
This is utter madness, and it needs to end for all parties.
Beyond tightening up these rules, which also need to be stricter at the federal level as well, the Ontario Liberal Party has a real issue on their hands with the allegations of irregularities. According to Erkine-Smith and his team, the party published a list of acceptable forms of identification and then ignored it completely.
Erskine-Smith has even said that he will remove himself from any future nomination races in Scarborough Southwest but implored the party to take the allegations seriously.
Liberal brass don’t want to address these issues
Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser, a man who has spent more time leading his party than the last two elected leaders, defended the vote on Saturday, saying there was nothing to worry about.
“I know it was fair,” Fraser said Monday. “If somebody’s saying that it’s not fair, then prove it.”
After Erskine-Smith filed his appeal, Fraser leaned back on the process saying the board of arbitration will examine all issues.
“They will adjudicate it expeditiously and thoroughly,” Fraser said.
“I’m confident they’ll be able to take a look at those things and address those.”
None of this looks good on the Liberals and they had best clear the air.
After a series of questionable nomination races that caused controversy in 2017, then-PC Party leader Patrick Brown ordered an investigation and called new nomination meetings.
The Ontario Liberal Party would be smart to do the same thing lest they end up with a candidate with a cloud hanging over his head.
Longer-term, though, every party needs to adopt new rules for nomination meetings, and the general rule should be, that if you can’t vote in a general election, you can’t vote any other time.