Q: Today is the municipal election for cities, towns, regional districts and school boards across B.C. What happens if there is a tie? What triggers a recount, and how does a recount work with electronic voting machines? What happens if you show up to vote, and someone has already voted in your name? What if a candidate were to die or be incapacitated before taking office?
A: While a tie vote is unlikely, they do happen.
There have been three ties in Canadian federal elections according to information released by the government: in Feb. 22, 1887 douard Guilbault and F. Neveu tied in Joliette, Que.; in the June 23, 1896 election Nicholas Davin and John K. McInnes tied in West Assiniboia, Northwest Territories; and on April 8, 1963 Paul Martineau and Paul-Oliva Goulet tied in Pontiac-Tmiscamingue, Que.
In addition, there have been more than a dozen federal elections that were decided by less than five votes.
There have also been two ties in Quebec provincial elections and one in Nova Scotia.
In B.C. the Local Government Act sets the rules for conducting municipal elections, including how to decide a tie vote.
The Act says that, "if a candidate cannot be declared elected because there is an equality of valid votes for [two] or more candidates, the chief election officer must declare that the election is to be referred to a judicial recount."
Under the legislation, candidates declared elected can't take the oath of office and begin their term until the results of a judicial recount are determined. However the Provincial Court can make an order allowing some candidates to take their oath if the court believes the recount will not impact that candidate being elected.
An elector, candidate or the chief election officer can also apply to the courts for a judicial recount if they believe: that ballots were either incorrectly counted or incorrectly rejected; that the ballot account does not accurately record the number of valid votes; or that the final calculations of the total votes were incorrect.
An application for a judicial recount has to be made within nine days of the closing of general voting.
If the court agrees to a judicial recount, it must be completed by the end of the 13th day after the close of general voting. The court can appoint people to assist in the recount and can request that any and all ballots, including those that were determined to be spoiled, be delivered for the judicial recount.
City bylaw No. 6067, which governs local elections, says that if a recount is required it will be done using the automated vote counting system.
If, after the judicial recount, there is still a tie, the Local Government Act allows two ways for a tie to be resolved: a runoff election or drawing lots.
A runoff election is a the default mechanism to resolve ties. In a runoff election the unsuccessful candidates run in a second election, to be held on a Saturday no more than 50 days after the judicial recount was completed. No new candidates can enter, but candidates are allowed to withdraw their names.
But municipalities have the option to pass a bylaw allowing ties to be resolved by drawing lots instead. The City of Prince George's bylaw calls for this mechanism to be used.
To determine the winner in a tie, the names of the tied candidates would be written on pieces of paper (as similar as possible); folded in a uniform manner so the names are not visible; placed in a container "that is sufficiently large to allow them to be shaken for the purpose of making their distribution random;" shaken; and the court-directed person (who is not a candidate or representative of a candidate) to pick one.
The person whose name is drawn is to be declared the winner by the court.
So after weeks of campaigning, and thousands of dollars of advertising, the election could come down to a name drawn from a hat.
Vote imposters
If a valid voter shows up, but finds that someone has already voted in their name, the Local Government Act does allow them to still vote.
However, they must provide evidence to convince the presiding election official that they are the named elector, or make a solemn declaration to the official that they are qualified to vote in that name.
The election official must keep a record that a second ballot was issued in that name, and of any elector challenge of the person who obtained the second ballot.
Dying to serve
It's often said the only two certainties in life are death and taxes, and municipal election candidates are not immune to either.
On Oct. 18, Mayor Jean Paul St. Pierre of Russell, Ont. died suddenly only nine days before the Ontario municipal elections, according to a report by the CBC. St. Pierre, 65, had been seeking reelection.
Had one of the local candidates died between the declaration of the election, but before election day, the city's chief election officer Walter Babicz would have been required to notify B.C. Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Coralee Oakes.
Oakes would have had to decide to either allow the election to proceed, or to cancel the election and order a new election to be held. A similar process would have occurred if Babicz believed a candidate was "incapacitated to an extent that will prevent the candidate from holding office" due to injury, illness or other circumstances.
Thankfully as of this writing, all the candidates were alive and well - especially as the Local Government Act doesn't prescribe any particular action if a candidate were to die suddenly on general voting day. Without any legal framework to stop the election, the city might be required to allow the election to continue and a dead person could - in theory - be elected to office.
However, the act does say that a byelection must be called if a person elected or appointed to office dies before taking office, or if a person currently holding an elected office dies. Hopefully it is a clause the city will never need to use.
Voting runs today from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Be sure to take the time to go out to cast your ballot, after all it could be the tie-breaking vote.
Do you have questions about events in the news? Are you puzzled by some local oddity? Does something you've seen, heard or read just not make sense? Email your questions to [email protected], and award-winning investigative reporter Arthur Williams will try to get to the bottom of it.
