When I first read Kady O’Malley’s post today, I was quite heartened to think that Wai Young’s appeal for a full recount would finally be taken seriously.
However the more I think about it, the less satisfied I become – especially after reading the Vancouver Sun report by Neil Hall:
…The matter was heard in court by Dohm late Wednesday, when the judge agreed to examine the counting statements for each of the 184 ballot boxes, which are called polls, for Vancouver South.
"Counting statements"? That’s it? What’s that going to prove?
Sandy seems to be just as indignant as I am . Hopefully this is just the starting point, but I want to see all the ballots counted just as they have been in every other recount.
Even Mike Duffy commented on it tonight when talking to Jane Taber and Robert Fife on MDL:
"…if you’re going to have a recount, let’s have a recount! … This is a very important decision!"
Jane and Robert seemed to agree with Duff.
This isn’t fair to Wai Young, and it isn’t even good for Ujjal Dosanjh. If he is deemed the winner without a full recount, this cloud will forever hang over his head like some fetid eau de democracy gone rancid.
What is going on out there?
Perhaps this gang from Vancouver South should come to Kitchener-Waterloo and find out how things are supposed to be done.
* * * *
Related: Brampton West recount scheduled for Nov. 3 – The Brampton Guardian:
"…The recount could take between three and four days, according to court officials…"
Hel-lo-o. Anyone listening out there in Vancouver South?
Conservative Reporter says, …OPEN THE BOXES!
Update on Kitchener-Waterloo recount - 570 News It’s still going to be a while.
Still watching and waiting for the Vancouver South ‘recount’ at Crux of the Matter.
For God’s sake just count the freaking ballots. How hard is that everyone else in Canada can do it.
This whole thing is really starting to smell.
What we have no idea from here is the reactions of the folks in Vancouver South and CPC supporters. If they’re not pissed and wanting answers, why aren’t they?
Seems to me they should be the largest drivers of a proper and full recount of every ballot. After all they made the effort to go to the polls and vote. It’s their voices that are being hijacked.
Do we know what the party’s doing to help?
It’s great that we’re not letting this go but, local ownership’s got to count for something.
“This whole thing is really starting to smell.”
How true, Joanne. Something is wrong with the whole process – I don’t understand how EC was so up in arms over the so called in/out scheme, yet they let something so blatant as this display of anti-democracy go on with nary a word.
O K I will say it would it be handled the same way if the result was a win for Wei by a 22 vote margin? I somehow don’t think so, this is dammed embarassing in a supposed democracy, count the frigging ballots already.
cheers Bubba
“What we have no idea from here is the reaction of the folks in Vancouver South and CPC supporters”
Sol, I think that we are seeing a gag order, implied or intimated.
The candidates cannot rally the troops in this case. These blogs are the ONLY reason this came to light. It would have been a done deal. Dosanjh, elected.
Also this is a highly defined ESL riding.The fact that getting any info even from CBC (that night was sweet, huh) now is NIL. This is a very big deal. There is never going to be resolution in this riding without a full recount or a full explanation why not.
I will want to see it in writing from EC and the Judge and I live in Alberta….
Has Dosanjh had anything to say about this publicly?
Come on Ujjal, democracy is not being served here. Speak up.
“examine the counting statements” will resolve nothing.
Recount all the ballots already!
What the heck is a justifiable excuse not to, given that the deciding result is in question?
Elections Canada has no legitimate excuse and will only solidify their notorious dis-repute if they don’t.
I hope the Government or Parliament conducts a full review of Elections Canada procedures and organization and implements any required changes before the next election. I suspect they run themselves like a smug little untouchable fiefdom, accountable to no one.
From the Elections Canada website.
Statement of the vote
287. (1) The deputy returning officer shall prepare a statement of the vote, in the prescribed form, that sets out the number of votes in favour of each candidate and the number of rejected ballots and place the original statement and a copy of it in the separate envelopes supplied for the purpose.
Copies of the statement of the vote
(2) The deputy returning officer shall give a copy of the statement of the vote to each of the candidate’s representatives present at the count.
If the ‘Statement Of the Vote’ is what he’s going to be looking at then an injustice is being done.
He has to count the actual ballots.
NeilD
The good Justice Dohm seems to be finding every excuse to wiggle out of a total recount.
I still think that Dohm should have refused / recused himself as he has had dealings with the Liberal candidate when he was the NDP Attorney General (then NDP Premier) of British Columbia.
I agree – this is really starting to smell.
I agree that Justice Dohm should have recused himself since he knows Ujjal so well. There’s still time for him to do that.
Dosanjh won by a very narrow margin which automatically called for a recount. Recounting only a select few renders the exercise futile and a farce when, from the few that were recounted, he lost even more votes. All who voted in that riding must demand their votes COUNT and demand they all be recounted.
This is coming close to vote tampering or rigging election outcomes. It’s only common sense to continue recounting when the margin was narrowing.
This judge did not show even fairness let alone common sense.
If he’s a friend of one of the candidates that makes it even worse. In fact it stinks to high heaven.
I’d be more inclined to ascribe this more to inertia (or, to be nasty, laziness) than to partisan malice. The judge has to go through 42 thousand ballots, after all.
The judge has to go through 42 thousand ballots, after all.
Phantom, we have a lot more than that here in K-W:
Nearly 100 election workers, scrutineers, party officials and Superior Court staff gathered yesterday in a former Shoppers Drug Mart in Beechwood Centre to open boxes and hand-count more than 60,803 ballots.
Source.
There is no excuse. None.
“This whole thing is really starting to smell.”
It sure does Joanne. The fact the judge did a sampling and called Dosanjh the winner after just 28 polls, WITH THE MARGIN GOING DOWN, showed
1.Either utter incompetence on the part of the judge,
2.Or the judge exploited EC rules to ensure Dosanjh’s win.
The fact the judge now appears to be using another loophole in EC rules seems to bypass the proper recount procedure appears to make #2 the most likely choice.
Who is paying the costs of Lawyers? The Liberals are broke and the donation limits have been reached.
Politics aside one of the main reasons the ‘recount’ is being carried out this way is to protect the ‘system’. A judge rules on matters of law mostly to protect the legal ‘system’ not to mete out justice. The judge in this instance may well be aware of ballot box stuffing and in order to protect the ‘system’ doesn’t want this illegal activity disclosed for all to see.
Joe
You have it backwards. The judge metes out justice according to the rule of law. Protecting the system is of no account.
Two points.
-in a mandated recall the government pays the costs.
-the bigger problem is the ‘bingo’ card change made this year where the Poll Clerk transcribed the unique number of every voter to a form that was then given to the scrutineers. This meant that scrutineers no longer has to man every polling station to know who had voted. It worked well for the scrutineers but left no one to supervise the polls.
This was most problematic during the counting. As a DRO I have always had at least 2 or 3 scrutineers to watch my count. This time I had no one. The scrutineer that I eventually found to sign my papers had no clue whether he was signing something valid or not.
That is the real reason that the ballots have to be recounted. Cheers.
The proceedings just commenced, this will be at the very least interesting.
Also what about the media report about one poll that should have had a max 500 votes but received over 900 with over 800 votes going to Dosanjh? Is Dohm going to investigate this? If not, why not? Are we looking at a fraud here?
If Dohm refuses to do a complete and fair recount the Conservative Party should demand he be replaced!
They will be counting the ballots from thirty more boxes today bringing the total to fifty eight ballot boxes counted. For tomorrow?
Bruce, do you have a link? Thanks. I’ve been out most of the day.
No Joanne I don’t, I heard it on the radio, CKNW from the Chorus network has somebody down there.
Thanks Bruce.
Your welcome Joanne
[...] statements, Elections Canada, poll, polls, recounts, rejected ballots, Vancouver South Joanne at “Blue Like You” says it is just not good enough, and she is [...]
[...] -original post- Joanne at “Blue Like You” says it is just not good enough, and she is [...]
[...] -original post- Joanne at “Blue Like You” says it is just not good enough, and she is [...]