Robo-Recall….Did Elections Canada Ignore Patient Zero?

Don’tStarveACold

FeedAllTheFeversVille

Lawerence Martin, writing in The Globe today, brings up a story that we in Lotusland who have been paying attention have been well aware of for some time now:

…To cast a bit of light, let’s go back to the 2008 election in the closely contested B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands. The incumbent was the apple-cheeked Conservative Gary Lunn. Midway through that campaign, Julian West, the NDP candidate, dropped out owing to revelations of a public nudity scandal from years earlier. But his withdrawal didn’t come in time to get his name off the ballot.

federal election was on Oct. 14. At dinnertime on Oct. 13, an automated phone message went out urging constituents, strangely enough, to vote for Mr. West. And it appeared to have some effect: He received 3,667 votes, almost 6 per cent of the total. A poll a few days earlier had showed him at 1 per cent. This was good news for Mr. Lunn. The bulk of those votes might otherwise have gone to the Liberal candidate, who lost to Mr. Lunn by 2,625 votes….

Now.
How come everyone in Canada did not know about this before the last day or three?
Well….
It turns out that Elections Canada chose not to fully investigate the matter.
Not because they they found any evidence that the misleading calls did not actually take place.
Instead, they said that there was no evidence that anyone’s vote had actually been changed because of them.
Andrew MacLeod of The Tyee was all over the story at the time:

The Commissioner of Canada Elections’ office investigated possibly fraudulent (2008) election eve phone calls made in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding during the federal election, but will not pursue charges.

“Our investigator found no one who had actually been influenced in their vote because of the purported telephone call, nor was he able to identify the source or the person or persons who actually made the calls,” said a Feb. 12 letter on Elections Canada and Commissioner of Canada Elections letterhead from legal counsel John Dickson to one of the people who complained. “Our investigation will now be concluded.”….

But here’s the thing.
In our system your vote is a secret.
So.
Wasn’t E-Canada’s reason for not investigating an act that was clearly designed to subvert an open, honest and fair vote clearly preposterous?
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There is something else (perhaps much more?) interesting in Mr. Martin’s latest that I was not aware of that may be worthy of further investigation, which is the following…“The (Conservative) party had a separate team, he (Lunn Campaign manager Byng Giraud) said, that worked on swing ridings….”
.