The Chief Elections Officer for the Town of Creston is requesting a judicial recount of the ballots cast in the recent municipal election. The Court will be reviewing the application Wednesday, October 31 at 9:30am in the Provincial Court Chambers in Creston and then rule on whether a judicial recount will be held. This hearing is open to the public.
A judicial recount means that an independent official, the judge, will decide if any ballots were not correctly accepted or not correctly rejected, as required by the rules in the Local Government Act. If granted, ballots for all categories (Mayor, Councillors and Referendum) would be recounted.
A judicial recount must be conducted and completed by the end of the 13 day after the close of general voting, which is November 2. The purpose is to confirm the accuracy of the counting of the ballots due to the closeness of the count.
Mayor Ron Toyota defeated Bill Hutchinson with 65 votes. The race for council was also very close with a difference of eight votes between Jim Karountzos, who won the sixth seat, and Joanna Wilson.
The judge will visually inspect ballots identified by the Chief Elections Officer as possibly not complying with section 139 of
the Act and will rule on their validity. After the judge approves the final count, the judge will formally declare the results of the election.
Chief Elections Officer for the Town of Creston, Stacey Hadley, says she will provide additional information as it comes available.