By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Recount request by 3rd place mayoral candidate thrown out by judge

Oct 30, 2018 | 3:04 PM

NANAIMO — The third-place finisher in Nanaimo’s recent election, who amassed only 365 votes, won’t get the judicial recount he’s asked for. 

Ray Farmere on Tuesday claimed in court the City of Nanaimo staff rigged the election results in the disguise of a technical glitch. 

“I saw on the screen that night (at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre), about 20,000 for me and then it dropped to 7,000 and then it dropped down to 365,” the 36-year-old Farmere told Judge Parker MacCarthy. 

He referenced the conference centre screen going dark due to technical malfunctions numerous times during the first few minutes of the event. 

“They said it shut down, but it took two minutes to change it. It takes longer than two minutes for a computer to come up. I’m a computer technician, it takes at least five minutes for a computer to come up. But it’s long enough to make some changes to the spreadsheets.”

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Farmere elaborated on his concerns about the technical difficulties outside court after MacCarthy threw out the application. 

“I felt what might have happened is the computer might have had two video cards in it, they might have switched from one to the other with the City logo on it, dual monitors basically and then switched back.”

Farmere claimed he has a photo showing he had roughly 7,000 votes, though the photo wasn’t submitted as part of his application. 

According to the officially declared results from the city, Leonard Krog earned 20,040 with his main competitor Don Hubbard earning 6,802.

The first computer malfunction happened shortly after advance polls were announced, with Krog dominating the count with 5,300 votes, Hubbard with roughly 1,600 and Farmere bringing up the pack with approximately 25 votes.

After the matter was dealt with, Krog said the claim against the City was “baseless in terms of its facts, in which he made allegations about citizens of this community which were untrue, where he questioned the integrity of staff at City Hall and their ability to conduct elections. It’s very disappointing.”

The City’s chief elections officer Sheila Gurrie told MacCarthy the request didn’t meet the threshold for a judicial recount. 

“What Mr. Farmere is talking about with the computer glitch has nothing to do with the preliminary or official election results,” she said. 

Gurrie also said the application didn’t have the proper supporting documentation, specifically an affidavit, required for a judicial recount. His notice to the City about the court date the next day was submitted just minutes before the 4:30 p.m. deadline on Monday, Oct. 29.

As well, Farmere also allegedly talked to City staff about the issue before going to court, contending one of the reasons he wanted an official recount was because more than 365 people pledged to vote for him.

Farmere made numerous claims in court with little evidence, saying he saw a man who looked like Santa Claus removing election signs from several candidates prior to the vote. He also took issue with his interpretation from the conference centre video board showing several polls were still open after the 8 p.m. voting deadline.

Gurrie said the high number of candidates and votes cast reflected votes were still being counted and stressed polls weren’t physically open after 8 p.m., as contended by Farmere. 

There was no change between preliminary election results released by the City on Oct. 20 at 11:30 p.m. and the final count on Oct. 24.

Krog and Nanaimo’s mostly-new council will be inaugerated on Monday, Nov. 5.

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