It has been a week since election night and still the results in Wollaston Township remain unofficial, but why, is the question unofficial Reeve-Elect Barb Shaw is asking, and she’s not the only one.
Shaw spoke with MyBancroftNow.com and says everything is up in the air right now and no one knows what is going on.
Shaw said, “All I know Monday night [sic election night] it was a pretty confusing count. I mean I ‘ve scrutineered a lot of election campaigns and it wasn’t typical by any stretch of the imagination, but we got through it. The margins were, in my opinion, significant. It’s not like we were apart by a few votes, so it was surprising when we didn’t get the official call on the Tuesday. And there has been no communication between the municipality and the unofficially elected candidates.”
Shaw says she wants answers and has reached out to Municipal Affairs, as well as the municipality. But all her emails have gone unanswered.
Jim Brooks is a seasonal resident of Wollaston Township and was a scrutineer for Shaw the night of the election. He told MyBancroftNow.com that he walked into the municipal office this (Monday) morning and asked acting clerk Verna Brundage why the election results hadn’t been made official.
He said he’s worked on other elections and knew the results should have been made official sometime last week and he wanted to know why it was taking so long.
Brundage told Brooks she was ready to sign off on Friday, but someone had come to her and said something unethical had been done. He then asked Brundage if it was in the room when the counting of ballots was done, to which she answered no. He then identified himself as a scrutineer and he says her demeanour changed and she took her time to answer any more questions.
Brooks says Brundage told him, “We are going to try to make it right and if we can’t make it right we are going to have another election and that person who did the unethical thing will have to pay for a new election.”
Brooks says Brundage would not indicate what the unethical act was, or, who the person who did it was.
Tim Conlin, another unofficial Councillor-elect has telephoned and stopped into the municipal office himself to get some information. Conlin says he went in again this (Monday) morning and spoke to Brundage. Conlin says Brundage told him, “What they have done is unethical and they know who they are, and they know what they’ve done.” Conlin says he kept asking her who “they” was but did not get an answer.
Conlin says Brundage told him, “They have divided this community, this community has been divided like never before.” Conlin asked her if she was referring to the newly elected officials. He says he told her, “We received the large majority of the vote and so I don’t see how we could have divided the community”. Brundage told Conlin this had just come to her attention this past weekend and she was going to keep “reviewing it until they come forward and make this right.”
Conlin says the majority votes in favour of the unofficial councillor elects were overwhelming and that tells him the community is not divided adding, “certain people are digging their heels in and trying to stop it for reasons only known to them.” He says in his opinion, “those ladies in that office are the only people who are dividing this community because they’re not making this election final and it’s been over a week.”
When MyBancroftNow.com contacted acting clerk Brundage she said, “I was kind of ready to release them and then I heard one piece of information which has caused me to want to do a little bit more research before I release them, but it should be soon.” When pressed about what the piece of the information was she refused to comment but said, “I want to release them as soon as possible.” When asked if the reason for the delay would be revealed when the results were made official she said, “I will have to decide then.”
Unofficial Reeve-elect Shaw, referring to her scrutineer being told information, says she is deeply disturbed by the fact that a person was able to wander into the municipal office and be given information that none of the candidates have been informed of.
Lynne Kruger, the unofficial and returning Deputy Reeve elect, says she has also reached out to the municipality but has had no response. Kruger says she is shaken and is wondering why the process is taking so long.
The MyBancroftNow.com newsroom has been told there is some concern that voters were registered after waterfront property owners signed over leases to family members which allowed those people to be added to the voters list six weeks before the election. No one has been able to give an official answer on that concern, however, Detective Sergeant John Kyle of the Bancroft OPP did confirm that a complaint about the election process has been made to the OPP and it is being looked into, but they are in the preliminary stages of determining whether an investigation will take place.
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs has not responded to our calls for comment.
This story is developing, please check back for updates.
***With files and interviews from Mathew Reisler