From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Carson Binda

Elections B.C. is drawing scrutiny which threatens to undermine taxpayer’s faith in our elections.

That’s a problem.

Here’s the solution: call a public inquiry into Elections B.C., not a politicised process through legislative committees working behind closed doors.

There is nothing to suggest the B.C. provincial election was stolen. There is nothing to suggest Elections B.C. was in cahoots with one party or another. But that doesn’t mean we can afford to turn a blind eye to its bureaucratic mishandling of the most important day in our democratic cycle.

In a democracy, taxpayers must have faith in elections and repeated screw-ups from Elections B.C. erodes that trust. And make no mistake, Elections B.C. did screw up its handling of the provincial election.

The problems with Elections B.C. range from bad to worse.

It took Elections B.C. more than a week to finish the preliminary tally of votes. Voting closed Oct. 19, but the final count didn’t occur until Oct. 28.

British Columbians shouldn’t be left in limbo because Elections B.C. bureaucrats won’t work late to count votes. And it shouldn’t take an extra week for the final count to begin.

Then came the revelation that Elections B.C. officials were storing ballots in their personal homes. Think about that for a moment. When you cast your ballot, did you imagine it would find its way into the basement of a bureaucrat’s home?

British Columbians generally believe Elections B.C. acts in good faith. But why allow questionable chains of custody for the most important pieces of paper in a democracy? Why risk storing ballots in bureaucrats’ basements instead of secure government buildings?

And we have good reasons to question the competency of the Elections B.C. bureaucracy.

First, the public was told Elections B.C. failed to count 14 votes in Surrey-Guildford. Then Elections B.C. found another 14 uncounted votes in the same riding, bringing the total to 28.

The NDP won Surrey-Guildford by 22 votes, meaning 28 uncounted votes could have been enough to alter the election. It’s also the riding that gave the NDP a one-seat majority government.

Elections B.C. blamed “human error” in a statement sent to the CTF for the uncounted votes in Surrey-Guildford.

A ballot box with 860 votes in Prince-George Mackenzie went uncounted and unreported during the initial counts. This mistake should have been caught immediately.

“Elections officials should have discovered this error when completing the ballot reconciliation process on election night, however this was not completed correctly,” according to Elections B.C.

Not only did Elections B.C. make a mistake by ignoring the ballot box in the first place, they also screwed-up the election night process by not catching its mistake.

In three-quarters of B.C.’s 93 ridings, mistakes by Elections B.C. led to unreported votes. That’s unacceptable.

To be fair, all the votes were eventually accounted for and counted. But our elections are too important to risk with these kinds of blunders from bureaucrats.

Both the ruling NDP and opposition B.C. Conservatives agree there needs to be an investigation into Elections B.C.’s mistakes.

The NDP wants an all-party committee made up of MLAs to probe Elections B.C. But that’s not good enough.

Legislative committees are political and are made up of politicians fighting for the spotlight. They can hide behind in-camera meetings the public doesn’t have access to.

For the public to have faith in our elections, the public needs to be involved in the inquiry. That’s what the B.C. Conservatives are calling for: an independent public review.

British Columbians need to have faith in our elections, so the public must be a part of the investigation. This is far too important an issue for taxpayers to be shunted off to the side while politicians play partisan games.

Carson Binda is the B.C. Director for the Canadians Taxpayers Federation.