Friday, November 21, 2014
BRENNAN INVESTIGATION CALLED FOR
Follows is a suggested letter to be sent to the Chief Electoral Officer if you feel that Councillor Brennan gained an unfair advantage during the election by the misuse of social media on election day.
If the electoral officer hears from enough concerned Nanaimo voters, he will have to demonstrate his support of the law about using social media on election day by taking some appropriate action.
If using social media on election day is not considered to have the potential for influencing the vote, then the rule should be struck down, and all candidates can use social media on election day.
If however, it is deemed to give those using social media an advantage, then clearly Mrs. Brennan's actions should bear consequence.
The following letter can be copy and pasted, altered to suit your thoughts and emailed to Mr. Archer at electionsbc@elections.bc.ca.
Be sure to sign the letter giving your name and address.
Keith Archer, Ph.D.
Chief Electoral Officer
PO Box 9275 Stn Prov Govt
Victoria BC V8W 9J6
By Email: electionsbc@elections.bc.ca
Dear Sir:
Pursuant to Section 75 of the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, I respectfully request a formal investigation into the unlawful actions on general voting day by Mrs. Diane Brennan, candidate in the 2014 Nanaimo municipal election.
Of the eight candidates declared elected, Mrs. Brennan received the lowest number of votes. She was elected by a margin of 100 votes more than the candidate with the next highest number of votes. She received 4.73% of the total vote compared to the next candidate with 4.65% -- a difference of only 0.08 percentage points.
It is my belief, that her deliberate unlawful actions in the election, gave her an unfair advantage. Without the advantage Mrs. Brennan would have failed to secure sufficient votes to be elected on November 15, 2014.
As we have seen at the Federal Level, when the integrity of our democracy is at risk, severe punishment is appropriate. The unlawful advertising was deliberate, campaign oriented, calculated to reach electors at the most opportune times at voting places, and conducted with demonstrable contempt for the rules.
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Even if Elections BC finds her "guilty", her actions would constitute a "lower penalty offence", meaning "No more than a $5,000 fine or up to one year in jail, or both", according to Elections BC whom I just got off the phone with.
ReplyDeleteIt's the bureaucrats in the Ministry of Community, Sports and Cultural Development who need to present information to their political handlers to add a penalty section to the law so a determined amount of VOTES can be taken away from a candidate committing such an offence or to have them thrown entirely out of the race!
The way the penalty's written, I guess any candidate could overlook the law, advertise, and know if they got caught would likely only have to pay a few hundred or thousand bucks - and that's if Elections BC finds you in contravention and if they decide to go ahead and fine (jail?) you!
Problem is, even if she loses her seat, look at who is next in line. We can't win.
ReplyDeleteI just finished sending off my complaint to Elections BC about this Brennan situation. I read the very weak article in the Daily News about this, a "Fluff
ReplyDeletepiece" of journalism by the usual weak reporters.
Dianne's cheap, saucy reply as to, "oh, I didn't know" and to including the
offensive shot that it's "cyber bullying", people complaining about her illegal
actions on Twitter and Facebook after she was previously warned.
As for "the second inline" for the job ????? AaaaaHhhhhhhh !!
Hold your nose ?
Ms. Brennan is the biggest BULLY I see at council - ignorantly knocking simple folk at the public podium or even other councilors.
ReplyDelete