A legal challenge to the Gibsons municipal election results has opened in Vancouver Supreme Court.
The action, brought by four Gibsons residents, calls into question the council portion of last November's municipal election due to alleged breaches of the Local Government Act (LGA) by municipal staff.
The hearing opened on Wednesday, but was immediately adjourned to today (Friday) to give the Town of Gibsons' legal team more time to address issues. Lawyer Raymond Young, representing the municipality, told the court that, nevertheless, the LGA "requires the court to deal with this expediently."
Former candidates Brian Sadler and David Croal along with electors Agnes Labonte and Barry Reeves submitted documents to the court on Dec. 18 that attempt to establish the actions of municipal chief electoral officer James Gordon (at the time the Town's corporate officer) and deputy chief electoral officer Wendy Gilbertson (current Town director of parks) between the polls closing at 8 p.m. on Nov. 15 and the official announcement of results on Nov. 19.
The preliminary results, announced a little over two hours after polls closed, stated that candidates LeeAnn Johnson (with 758 votes), Wayne Rowe (689), Chris Koopmans (592) and Kenan MacKenzie (576) were elected - with Bob Curry (525), Croal (457), Sadler (446) and three others unsuccessful. But the Nov. 19 official announcement changed the positions of MacKenzie and Curry. Those results stated that the four elected were Johnson (780), Rowe (722), Koopmans (629) and Curry (627) - with the next placed, and unsuccessful, candidates being MacKenzie (610), Croal (477) and Sadler (460).
The legal petition claims that, on election night, Gilbertson was informed of mathematical errors on two occasions and subsequently went through materials out of direct view of scrutineers. She later allegedly recounted the votes by herself without telling candidates and their agents that they had the right to be present - the recount that changed the positions of MacKenzie and Curry.
The petition states, "At some point between the release of the preliminary election results on the evening of the election (Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008) and the afternoon of Tuesday, Nov. 18, Ms. Gilbertson recounted the ballots and/or the tally sheets upon which the council votes were recorded. Ms. Gilbertson conducted the recount alone many of the vote counts changed, including on the advance polling days as well as the election day."
According to an affidavit filed by Gilbertson, her election night math was initially hampered by a calculator that "proved to be erratic," but she subsequently checked totals on an adding machine, with scrutineers relatively close. However, the tally sheets were subsequently found to be out of sequence, meaning the figures presented that night were "not the final running totals," according to her affidavit. She discovered this error along with one relating to advance polls when checking the materials on Monday, Nov. 17, and told Gordon the next day.
Gordon's affidavit states that failing to advise candidates of their rights to attend this "final determination" was "an oversight and the irregularity was an error made in good faith."
The Town of Gibsons approved on Tuesday, Jan. 6, their first regular meeting of the year, to budget up to $20,000 to fight the case.
