C09. THIS MAYOR AND HIS ADMINISTRATION

C9.:

The Wolfville Municipal Election “Soap Opera”
(“Stay tuned to the next weekly episode!”)

On October 18, 2008 and during the “early voting dates” app. 1,340 electors (about 42%) voted at the Wolfville school to fill the offices of the Mayor and the Councillors for the next four years.

On October 20, 2008 at the regular Council Meeting, the “unofficial” results were presented. The public was told that these figures and the winning candidates would be made official the very next day.

Unbelievably, on the third day after the election a surprising fact surfaced – a “miscount”. About 137 votes, cast in the early voting, were somehow “misplaced and/or overlooked”.

These particular votes favor the candidate Carl Oldham and - when official - Carl will take office as a Councillor instead of Eric Hughes, who had “won” prior to the discovery of the “miscount”.

Unfortunately, “early congratulations” (including mine) to Eric now prove embarrassing because according to the “new” count he is no longer a “winner”. What a turn of events – like in a soap opera. Perhaps, an apology to Eric is in order.

It is very understandable why Eric paid 200 dollars deposit and filed an application for a recount with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Section 131 of the Municipal Elections Act with the subsections (1) and (2) entitles him to do so. A judge will now appoint a time and a place to recount all votes within a time frame of 30 days after the date of Eric’s application (MEA s. 132 (1)). And section 133 (1) then reads: “The returning officer shall attend throughout the proceedings at the place and time appointed for the recount with the sealed ballot boxes and poll books used at the election, ..”.

Some ideas and implications read as follows:

• There is a thin border-line between excusable human errors and incompetence and - having been trained and sworn in as a deputy returning officer myself at the recent federal election - I find it almost incomprehensible that about 137 votes became somehow “misplaced and/or overlooked”.
• Having been glued to the TV screen during the night after the polling stations were closed, I found it difficult to comprehend that the small Town of Wolfville was unable to present its results on TV, while much bigger municipalities like Halifax were able to do so. What was so time consuming to count app. 1,340 votes and why were the final results still incorrect despite all the time taken?
• This “miscount” delays the “new” Councillors to be sworn in and allows the “old gang” to go on ruling Wolfville.
• For sure, this returning officer will be an honourable and trustworthy person, but the fact that she is employed with the Town and takes her orders from the Mayor and the CAO should not be ignored. Personally, I would like to see an independent person, chosen by Council, to fill the position of the returning officer as the highest authority in a municipal election.

Lutz E. Becker / Nov. 02, 2008