A question for Craig James : Did Christy Clark break the elections act yesterday? ** UPDATED with response from Elections BC below

Posted on by Laila

Courtesy of Cheryl, who posted the following on Facebook:

According to Section 93 (3) of the Elections Act:

(3) Other than for the purpose of voting, a candidate must not be present while voting proceedings are being conducted.

So how come Christy was allowed to bring lunches to the volunteer scrutineers yesterday? EBC – I’m waiting to hear your answer…..

So are we Cheryl, so are we…

 
******RESPONSE FROM ELECTIONS BC  noon, May 13th.
 

” Here’s the response I got from EBC today.

Hi Cheryl,
you are correct, candidates are only allowed within a voting place if they are voting. We have reviewed the facts and determined that lunch was delivered to campaign workers outside the building where voting was being conducted. At no time
did Christy Clark go within the voting place.

Thank you for bring this to our attention.

Regards,
Chris Roberts
Elections BC

Anyone surprised? Here’s my response to Chris:

Thanks for your response Chris. However, Ms. Clark was within 100 metres of the polling location and was using the media as the means to canvass or solicit votes or otherwise attempt to influence how a voter votes. In one photo she is shown standing right beside the polling location sign, with the caption: bringing lunch to the volunteers, and in another she is shown with her hand outstretched, ready to shake someone’s hand. That is definitely electioneering.

It is beginning to appear that there is one set of rules for the Liberals and another set for the rest of us. I have never seen such “pushing of the envelope” in my life as I have seen from these people.

Cheryl “

44 thoughts on “A question for Craig James : Did Christy Clark break the elections act yesterday? ** UPDATED with response from Elections BC below”

  1. I don’t understand she did not have enough time for an all candidates debate but lots of time to play delivery person. Then again made she did what she is capable of course she could also return to the other job she demonstrated was within her skill level as a server in a restaurant

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  4. That time she spent making lunch for her scrutineers, and posing for the press would have been better spent in debate. Cowardess! You won, Ms. Clark, but by a squeak…..

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  8. Did she enter the voting station? If no, there would presumably be no violation. There’s a prescribed “zone” around voting stations where signs and, presumably, candidates can’t be. I think it’s 100 meters. So long as she wasn’t within that, she’s fine.

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    1. Remains to be seen, reality check. Since there were so many media there watching , perhaps one of them would step forward and clarify what she did, or did not do at the polling station. There are photos that show her standing right by a voter polling station sign that I am told was closer than 100 metres to the polling station, so even if she did not go inside, voters arriving to vote would easily have seen the photo op of her delivering lunches.

      It’s not like she hasn’t already shown shes willing to break the rules, or have a team that is willing to do so for her- her campaign twitter feed was on the BC government premier page. How many public tax dollars funded the PR aspect of her campaign in Pt. Grey? Theres a good question.

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  9. It’s amazing how many issues there are with our elections and people breaking the rules. Stephen Harper campaigning on CKNW on elections day. The conservative party willfully breaking elections act spending laws. That whole your polling station has moved call setup scam. It’s hard to have faith in our system when it is obviously so broken.

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  11. Hi Laila,

    Sorry a little off topic but do you know anything about ‘Blogger is currently unavailable read-only mode?’ It’s on several sites, Grant G, RossK, Kootcoot, Bill T., Norm Farrell, where you can’t post a comment. Are Harper and Clark censoring/shutting down comments on the internet already, immediately after their ‘elections’?

    Thanks, Jean

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  12. Are you always up this late/early or is one of your kids sick or are you working far too late?!!

    Thanks for the quick response Laila.

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    1. All of the above..lol.. Yes, I work very early before the kids wake up and after they go to bed generally,but both of them are currently sick- again- and coughing a lot in their sleep. Couldn’t sleep myself so I am working. You are up early too!

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  13. CC = Power at any cost. She has nothing to contribute and any recent “gifts ” to the taxpayer have been for show only. She has an agenda to complete and needs to get on with it. To her any means justify the end. If she listens to her advisors, then we are in for a very rough ride over the next two years. If she continues to ignore them, then we will have a chance to dethrone the whole lot this fall. One can only hope :- ).

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  15. I have another question fro EBC. Since the election count won’t be official until next week is she allowed to enter the Chamber before that time? Anything can happen in a Official Count.

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    1. Good question, Gary, anyone know the answer?

      Ross, I noticed your post was gone when I went back. Two thumbs down for Blogger for messing up. Let’s hope a recovery is possible.

      Gary at 7:03, I agree her photo ops are really insulting to those who know the history behind the projects she has been opening!! The house in north Surrey for single moms, kissing the babies, blech. She never had a thing to do with that, or the Surrey Memorial expansion,or almost anything else she has “opened”. And yet she continues to avoid serious issues like the lack of school space in Surrey, or even address the fact her government just denied an increase in district funding for things like the lunch program for kids from low income families in Surrey schools. Give me a break. What I would do for a one on one interview with Ms. Clark. That is an open invitation.

      I can’t see how the Liberals can win when she calls an election. Her instant rebuff to Point Grey voters was a huge error on her part. Even voters outside that riding will resent her for blatantly using the voters to get into the leg.

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  16. There were people questioning about, the voting booths had only pencils to mark ballots. That makes the ballots very easy to tamper with. Elections BC is not trusted either. Craig James changed the wording on the recall petition, after the fact. I won’t trust the referendum vote either. The sad part is, there is nothing in this province, that isn’t corrupt. None of our questions ever get an honest answer. If you watch the BC Liberals, in the Legislature, they are incapable of giving honest straight forward answers. They play silly little juvenile games. Especially Hansen and De Jong, were an absolute disgrace. If I were the speaker, I would have thrown both of them, right out of the Legislature. What a spectacle they made of themselves. Shameful.

    Harper did campaign after the deadline. Harper was beside himself, frantic and rabid to win, even begging for a majority. The first thing Harper did, he gave the giant corporations another tax reduction. So we all know which way the wind is blowing, it is against the Canadian citizens. There were also questions regarding the vote booths, for the Federal election having only lead pencils as well. Over half of Canadians, did not want Harper as P.M. The American citizens, dead set against the N.A.U. said, Harper’s election win was rigged.

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  17. Maybe we should all start to insist that people use either a “felt tip marker or indelible ink “to mark their ballots with, in future and not use the lead pencils.

    Even the so-called third world countries use ink for fingerprinting their ballots with – notice that Mubarak did exactly that when he last cast a vote. This is needed for any country nowadays as the governments in power seem to think they can break the law when they feel it right to do so.

    I am certain that even the Christy Clarks by-election result was already determined in advance (or rigged if you like) and the penciled in checks (crosses) easily removed and put elsewhere by someone other than the voter. Yes, with the corruption currently in this country, everything is up for grabs. Even Elections BC and it appears, Elections Canada, are both not fulfilling their legal obligations – and nothing is being done.

    Thanks.

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  18. Here’s the response I got from EBC today.

    Hi Cheryl,
    you are correct, candidates are only allowed within a voting place if they are voting. We have reviewed the facts and determined that lunch was delivered to campaign workers outside the building where voting was being conducted. At no time
    did Christy Clark go within the voting place.

    Thank you for bring this to our attention.

    Regards,
    Chris Roberts
    Elections BC

    Anyone surprised? Here’s my response to Chris:

    Thanks for your response Chris. However, Ms. Clark was within 100 metres of the polling location and was using the media as the means to canvass or solicit votes or otherwise attempt to influence how a voter votes. In one photo she is shown standing right beside the polling location sign, with the caption: bringing lunch to the volunteers, and in another she is shown with her hand outstretched, ready to shake someone’s hand. That is definitely electioneering.

    It is beginning to appear that there is one set of rules for the Liberals and another set for the rest of us. I have never seen such “pushing of the envelope” in my life as I have seen from these people.

    Cheryl

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  19. […] Laila Yule has the scoop.  Clark delivered lunches – and a photo op – to her poll scrutineers Wednesday.  Here’s the relevant Election Act section:  “(3) Other than for the purpose of voting, a candidate must not be present while voting proceedings are being conducted”. […]

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  20. Do those same rules apply to the opinion poll referendum in Lumby?

    If so, perhaps we could find out if Mayor Acton delivered lunch to the “Yes” vote scrutineers at the Lumby Village polling station?

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  21. The same rules apply to municipal elections. I have a friend who was scrutineering for her husband, who was running for Mayor. He tried to bring her some lunch and the poll supervisors freaked out on him.

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  22. Cheryl’s point about the wurlitzering of this is spot on.

    And most egregious, as noted by Andrew MacLeod over at the Tyee is the fact that they party actually issued a freaking Press Release. This was poll day electioneering, pure and simple.

    .

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  24. possibly a name change, MANY members not happy with deputy minister ( falcon) and rest of crew :”Need a house cleaning”

    All bike projects to be cancelled, immediately, passed in convention policies.

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  25. Meanwhile, it would appear that E-BC is doing its best to make sure we, the people, don’t find out the known knowns that they don’t want us to know, but the proPols already do….

    Or some such thing.

    .

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  26. Just like the good old days pre- election 2009. Well done on that blog post RossK!

    Three things you can’t hide for long: the sun, the moon, and the TRUTH.

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  27. You bet Laila

    On the lighter side, new names for BC LINOs are already rising…..

    My favourite so far is here.

    (can anybody tell that I’m sitting at the pool waiting for littler e’s swim to end with nothing better to do than follow the tweets of the twits – self included)

    .

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  29. I was trying to think of one saving grace, within the BC Liberals. I honestly couldn’t even think of one. This province is, so absolutely polluted with corruption, it makes me cringe. The most terrible of all is, none of the Liberals are ashamed of themselves. They wear their banners of, lies, deceit, thefts, corruption, criminal deeds, cheating to win, with pride.

    The courts are corrupt, judges are corrupt, police, Elections BC, biased unfair media, everything in a sickening cesspool. Instead of working with the people, as any elected government is supposed to do, they work against us.

    The BC Liberals, thieve from the province and from the people. Anything they say, is automatically considered a lie. The Liberals can change their party name, however, their elected members can’t. We know all of them, they won’t be forgotten.

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  30. “There are photos that show her standing right by a voter polling station sign that I am told was closer than 100 metres to the polling station, so even if she did not go inside, voters arriving to vote would easily have seen the photo op of her delivering lunches.”

    Keeping in mind that 100 meters is the length of even a Canadian 110 yard football field, she would have to be on the next block, out of sight of the polling station, unless across the street was an open park. This also neglects to consider she couldn’t enter any polling station in the riding to vote, since she doesn’t live in the riding. KKKarl Rove and George Bush’s daddy’s friends started this crap in Florida in 2000 when they stole the election Gore WON and now it is becoming business as usual where cheating in many different ways is more important than campaigning. As I mentioned elsewhere today, soon we will be needing to call in election observers from more open and accountable jurisdictions like Haiti, Iran, Belarus and the Ukraine to insure a semblance of fair elections in Canada anyday now.

    Gary E – as long as the results aren’t OFFICIAL and are so close and in dispute it would seem to me that either both her and Eby can enter the legislature or neither should be allowed.

    As to the Blogger problems recently, even Sister Sage was experiencing similar issues and they use Word Press, the only thing they share with the Blogger victims is a point of view. I’m wondering if you, Laila, merely use WP software but host your blog elsewhere. I used to manage a couple websites using Blogger, but hosted independently, but Google stopped supporting that method a year or two ago with no credible explanation. I think it is a bid to control other people’s data and I advise all bloggers using WP, Google or whatever to make sure to store copies of their work in locations under their own control. I’ve known for years that one of the golden rules of computer science when it comes to any kind of data is Back-up, Back-up and Back-up the back-ups. I certainly relearned that, maybe for good now, when the House recently disappeared for a week or so. I’m going to publish a post soon at the House on back-up issues to help our less technically inclined blogging associates.

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  31. Given all th above Where is the action to right the wrongs?
    The ‘net is a wondrous tool for letting off steam and perhaps there needs to be an all out ‘blow-up’ to put pressure on rather than ‘let off steam’

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  34. The stipulations of the Act are clear. The photographs are clear. Clark’s intent is clear. The wording of the invitation to the press must have been clear, otherwise they would not have all shown up at the same time and place. And the response of Elections BC is clear.

    What is not clear is why Craig James has no intention of fulfilling his duties under section 12(d) of the Act. Which leaves room for speculation.

    No balls?

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  35. “What is not clear is why Craig James has no intention of fulfilling his duties under section 12(d) of the Act. Which leaves room for speculation.

    No balls?”

    Nope, has nothing to do with his genital equipment or lack of same. It all has to do with ElectionsBC itself being “neutered” and thus having neither balls nor ovaries. At one time ElectionsBC worked for the the people of BC in a non-partisan fashion. Now ElectionsBC is just another group of zombies like the Public Affairs Bureau that answers to their boss GordonChristyCampbellClark or whoever replaces Christy once the folks behind the curtain decide she is a liability, whcih might not be long!

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  36. Speaking of elections, and politics, and worrying symbolism … I would like to share my concern (although it’s federal).

    Remember that scene, when Harper’s new government went to Rideau Hall on May 17, 2011 to be sworn in by the Queen’s representative (who, I thought, was obliged to maintain a semblance of impartiality).

    Then the whole Harper gang was seated. The TV cameras were facing them. And in the foreground, we saw Harper and the new Governor-General Whatshis-name approaching them, walking toward this annointed group.

    So help me … David Johnston raised his two clenched hands over his head — not once but twice (maybe more – he seemed delirious with joy) — in that time-honoured signal of victory: “We won! We won!”

    Can you imagine a MORE partisan gesture, given that group, that time, that place. Or a more offensive signal?

    Our governor-general didn’t change the election results (as Christy’s sandwich delivery may have done); but a Victory Salute to Harper’s Gang from the Queen’s representative surely put the smell of rot on all who are supposed to be looking after the country for us.

    Please don’t tell me nobody cares. Who were all those people crammed into London England for the wedding of the Queen’s grandson, eh? PR you couldn’t buy.

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