Canada election 2011: Judge rules victory by Toronto Conservative MP Ted Opitz ‘void’ An Ontario judge has declared the federal election results in the Toronto riding of Etobicoke Centre null and void. Justice Thomas Lederer threw out 79 ballots that he determined were not registered or vouched for properly, in excess of the 26 vote spread that separated Conservative MP Ted Opitz and former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj. It’s a victory for Mr. Wrzesnewskyj, who argued that the “irregularities” affected the outcome of the election.
In a 40 page decision, Justice Lederer described the “true conundrum” he wrestled with. “On the one hand, people who are qualified to do so should be allowed to vote and to have their votes count. True clerical errors, such as recording the number of ballots cast in the place reserved for the number who were vouched for, do not matter,” he wrote. “This election was conducted by responsible public officials and well-intentioned individuals, who were motivated by nothing less than a desire to do the job properly. Gavin Tighe, who represents Mr. Mr. Voter registrations missing in contested Toronto riding - Politics. Fifty-one voter registration certificates spread across three polls in a Toronto riding are missing from last May's federal election and Elections Canada has no record of them, a lawyer for the agency confirmed to CBC News Wednesday.
Former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj lost the riding of Etobicoke Centre by just 26 votes to Conservative Ted Opitz and is contesting the results before a judge in Ontario Superior Court. When a potential "new" voter arrives at a polling station, a registration certificate is filled out by an election official and signed by the voter. The certificate records the voter's name, address and date of birth, and the voter's signature is his or her declaration of Canadian citizenship and affirmation of residence in that particular poll. Former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj is fighting the results of last year's federal election in court over irregularities in his Etobicoke Centre riding.
Wrzesnewskyj lost by 26 votes. (Adrien Veczan/Canadian Press) Canada News: Judge throws out election result in Etobicoke-Centre, orders byelection. A judge has declared last year’s federal election results in a Toronto riding to be null and void due to voting irregularities. The judge has ordered a byelection in Etobicoke-Centre, which Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj lost by 26 votes to Conservative Ted Opitz. A Liberal party spokesman says the decision vindicates Wrzesnewskyj’s claims. During arguments heard last month, the losing candidate claimed a series of essentially clerical errors was enough to warrant overturning the results of last May’s vote. In making their unprecedented case, lawyers for the Liberal candidate argued the integrity of the electoral system depended on strict adherence to procedural rules.
Wrzesnewskyj argued that sloppy application of voting rules by Elections Canada officials may have allowed some ineligible voters to cast ballots, and some may have actually voted twice. s3.documentcloud.org/documents/357587/wrzesnewskyj-v-opitz-et-al-decision.pdf. Toronto riding's election result tossed by judge - Politics. Conservative MP Ted Opitz's 2011 federal election win in Etobicoke Centre was declared null and void today in a challenge by former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj. Opitz won the May 2011 election by 26 votes, but Wrzesnewskyj challenged the results over voting irregularities. The case required more than 26 votes be thrown out for it to be declared void. Conservative Party spokesman Fred Delorey said they're disappointed with the court decision after 52,000 people in Etobicoke Centre "followed the rules, cast their ballots and today had their democratic decision thrown into doubt. " "The judge has found problems with the way that Elections Canada ran the election in this riding," he said in an emailed statement.
"As the judge took care to point out in the decision, Ted Opitz and the Conservative campaign team followed the rules. Opitz's office released an identical statement. Wrzesnewskyj told CBC News that the riding needs a byelection to restore democracy. Lawyers examined ballots. Judge nixes Etobicoke-Centre election results. TORONTO – Enough suspect votes were cast due to clerical errors to warrant overturning last year’s federal election result in a Toronto riding, an Ontario judge said in an unprecedented ruling Friday. The decision by Ontario Superior Court Justice Thomas Lederer upends the narrow 26-vote win by Conservative Ted Opitz over former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, and means a byelection will have to be called if the ruling stands. Lederer made it clear the voting irregularities — essentially clerical errors — were not the product of fraud or other intentional wrongdoing.
“This election was conducted by responsible public officials and well-intentioned individuals, who were motivated by nothing less than a desire to do the job properly,” Lederer said in his 41-page decision. “What this case represents is an opportunity to learn, and for the process to evolve in order to guard against the particular problems that appeared in this case.” Lederer disagreed. He won the byelection that followed. Judge throws out federal election results in Toronto riding. Parties are already preparing for a possible federal by-election in an Ontario riding after a defeated Liberal MP successfully challenged Elections Canada’s handling of local balloting during last year’s federal vote. In a rare decision, an Ontario Superior Court judge on Friday threw out the results of the 2011 general election in the Toronto-area riding of Etobicoke-Centre after he found that officials failed to ensure 79 voters were properly registered or cleared to cast a ballot. Within hours of Friday’s court decision, residents of the Toronto riding received automated robocalls asking how they would vote in a possible ballot.
A recipient could not remember whether the message identified any party as the source of the call. One Etobicoke resident told The Globe and Mail they received an automated call about 6:30 pm ET asking them how they'd vote. Both the Conservative and Liberal parties said they didn't authorize such calls. If Mr. In this case, the math was in Mr. Mr. Mr.