Penny Duperron has asked the board with School District 53 to take action and deem the recent school trustee by-election null and void after discovering a second advance poll was not held. Board chair Marieze Tarr said the mistake was a simple oversight and did not contravene the spirit of the Local Elections Act. (Richard McGuire photo).
At Wednesday night’s School District board meeting in Oliver, recent by-election trustee candidate Penny Duperron said the election should be declared invalid because the board contravened the Local Government Act by not holding a second advance poll during the election.
Chief Election Officer Lynda Minnabarriet confirmed this by saying they only held one advance poll, noting it was an “oversight.”
Casey Brouwer won the by-election with 251 votes – 40 votes ahead of Duperron, his closest rival. He was helped by a strong showing at the advance poll on Oct. 26 when he led with 83 votes, compared to 27 each for Duperron and third-place finisher John Redenbach.
Brouwer was sworn in as the new trustee at Wednesday’s meeting, but Duperron said the onus is on the board to address the error.
“Because we don’t know if a second advance voting opportunity would have materially changed the election results, I believe that the school board needs to petition the BC Supreme Court to have the election declared invalid and then we start again.”
Duperron said the board should not expect the candidates or the community to “take them to court (once again) to fix a problem they created.”
But on Wednesday, board chair Marieze Tarr said the board, according to the Local Government Act, does not make this decision. She noted it is up to the chief election officer, a candidate in the election, or at least four electors to bring the application to the Supreme Court to challenge the validity of the election.
“It is important to remember that this will not necessarily result in the by-election being declared invalid, as the act does anticipate the possibility of errors or oversights,” Tarr said.
The chair said the board believes that the election was conducted in good faith and in accordance with the principles of the Act, and that the irregularity or failure did not materially affect the result of the election.
But Duperron said the board’s inaction will affect the confidence and trust that the community has in them, and not fixing the error will continue to erode that trust.
The candidate acknowledged that not holding a second advance poll was an honest mistake, but it was an error nonetheless.
“As candidates we were given a book of rules to follow,” she said. “We were all amateurs. None of us had ever run for office before, yet we were expected to follow the rules. They (members of the board) are professionals. They have rules to follow.”
Duperron said the board has to declare the election invalid under these circumstances.
“I think a second advance poll definitely could have made a difference,” she said. “I know there are many people that, for one reason or another, didn’t vote. There is a lot of the voting public that wasn’t heard from.”
Duperron isn’t sure what she will do next, but is hoping the board will do the right thing.
She admitted that some people who don’t know her will think she’s a sore loser. But that’s not the case, she stressed.
“I have already conceded defeat to Casey. I have already offered him congratulations in writing and in person.”
Duperron said her challenge is about the people of Osoyoos being deprived of their democratic rights.
Brouwer was contacted by phone, but he did not make himself available for comment.
Lyonel Doherty
Special to the Times
