A committee has upheld an appeal of last month’s election for two Deninu Kųę́ First Nation councillors.
In a decision shared to Facebook on Thursday, the First Nation’s election appeal committee unanimously found the inclusion of an ineligible voter in the July 14 election violated regulations and provided grounds for an appeal.
Committee members directed that the election be held again with the same five candidates on the ballot, as first reported by NNSL.
Sharon Lafferty and Dave Pierrot, who unsuccessfully ran for the open councillor seats, had both filed appeals of the election, citing a flawed process.
The appeal committee agreed with Lafferty and Pierrot’s argument that the ineligible vote had affected the outcome of the election.
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The committee noted Pierrot and Kevin Boucher tied for second place, each receiving 57 votes, and there was no way of knowing if either of them received a vote from the ineligible voter.
Boucher subsequently won the seat in a run-off election.
According to the committee’s decision, the confusion resulted from the ineligible voter having the same name as someone else who was on the list of electors and is a registered member of Deninu Kųę́ First Nation.
The ineligible voter, who did not have identification at the polling station, filled out a declaration form stating they were entitled to vote and were a registered member of Deninu Kųę́, which was inaccurate.
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In his appeal, Pierrot further raised concerns that only his and Boucher’s ballots were recounted and not those of the other candidates.
The committee agreed a recount should include all candidates. It said that “would seem especially appropriate in an election where the votes were so close,” pointing out the front-running candidate received 61 votes – four more than Pierrot and Boucher each received.
The committee said that “flaw” further justified overturning the results of the election, although the regulations do not provide a process governing the recount of ballots.
