Conservative Honveer Randhawa filed the petition in B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday
The challenger to the B.C. New Democrat in October’s provincial election has filed a court petition asking to have Garry Begg’s election victory in the Surrey-Guildford riding declared invalid.
B.C. Conservative Honveer Singh Randhawa alleges that non-residents of the riding appear to have voted; that several people cast multiple ballots using similar, though not identical, names; and, most glaringly, that a group of residents at a care home cast votes by mail-in ballot despite some not speaking English or even knowing an election was being held.
“I was not aware that the provincial election was occurring,” said Argyll Lodge resident Parminder Singh Bains in an affidavit accompanying the petition, which was translated for Singh from Punjabi. “I did not look into any of the parties or their policies.
“I was rushed into marking the ballot, I do not know who I have voted for. … I marked the ballot where they pointed it and I was led to believe that I had no choice but to mark the ballot, otherwise I feared that I would be kicked out of the house.”
Begg received 8,947 votes to Randhawa’s 8,925 in the Oct. 19 election, a 22-vote victory after a recount confirming the NDP win.
According to the petition, volunteers for Randhawa knocked on doors at several homes in the riding and spoke to residents who said people whose votes were listed for that address did not live there, though some of the alleged non-resident voters owned the properties that others were renting.
Other allegations are that some voters voted twice using the same address but slightly different names — such as a home on Roxburgh Road where votes by Peter Grefiel and Peter Catalan Grefiel were cast, and another on the same street where votes by Inder Jit Singh and Inderjit Tonny Singh were tallied.
The most serious alleged irregularities revolve around Argyll Lodge, a residence for people, including seniors, with serious and persistent mental illness.
The court documents allege 21 mail-in votes were cast by residents of the lodge, which has a 25-bed capacity. Two of those living there told Randhawa’s volunteers they can’t read or write in English and don’t know what a mail-in ballot is.
Both said that they didn’t know an election was being held and had never requested a mail-in ballot. They say that on Oct. 19, a staff member told them to mark an ‘X’ in a box under rushed circumstances and that they don’t know who they voted for.
Volunteers said they visited the lodge and encountered residents who had difficulty with basic conversation or were unresponsive. Because of their communication challenges, Randhawa alleges it is likely they were subject to “undue influence or outright ballot manipulation.”
During the recount of the close result, Randhawa said he was stonewalled by Elections B.C. when he requested voter participation lists and counts of mail-in votes, assisted telephone votes and special and absentee ballots. Election officials told Randhawa the lists would not be made available until the recount was finished.
When he finally received the list more than a month after the election, Randhawa said all he received was a list of voter ID numbers, without a breakdown of mail-in ballots or other details.
He says that made searching for contraventions among the more than 19,000 votes cast difficult, especially since he was under time constraints to bring a court petition to decertify the election result.
Randhawa says he has lodged a formal complaint with Elections B.C. asking for an investigation into the questionable votes cast by Argyll Lodge residents.
None of the allegations in the petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster has been tested in court.