By Canadian Press

Elections BC probes NDP complaint over Liberal candidate’s mail-in ballot requests

Sep 30, 2020 | 1:32 PM

PORT MOODY, B.C. — Elections BC is investigating a complaint made by the NDP against a B.C. Liberal candidate in the provincial election that claims personal information was collected for the purpose of ordering mail-in ballots.

Elections BC says in a statement voters must request their vote-by-mail package on their own and it’s an offence under the Election Act to make that request on behalf of a voter.

The statement says at this stage, Elections BC has no evidence to suggest that requests for vote-by-mail packages were actually made on a voter’s behalf and the party has denied the allegations.

New Democrat candidate Ravi Kahlon, who is running in North Delta, says the complaint stems from a social media group of about 100 people and claims they were urged to collect confidential information from voters.

Kahlon alleges that Garry Thind, the Liberal candidate for Surrey-Fleetwood, was the administrator for the group that’s also named after him, and he would have been aware that the volunteers were told to ask for voters’ names, addresses, birth dates and social insurance numbers.

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Thind couldn’t immediately be reached for comment, while Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson says there’s a lot of confusion about mail-in ballots, but he expects candidates to follow the law and he’s hoping for a quick response from Elections BC.

Elections BC says it contacted Thind’s campaign, which denied the allegations and said no voter information was received.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2020.

The Canadian Press