Voter fraud detected in Metro Vancouver's largest cities
With just over a week to go before B.C.’s civic elections, police in the province’s three largest municipalities are investigating voter fraud and vote buying.
On Friday, the cities of Richmond, Vancouver and Burnaby were looking into messages circulating on the Chinese social media app WeChat. It appeared the Richmond-based Wen Zhou Friendship Society had encouraged people in a private chat group to vote for certain candidates in Richmond, Vancouver and Burnaby, and offered money.
The City of Richmond said it had referred the matter to Richmond RCMP for further investigation and would not comment further while the investigation was underway.
In a statement, the City of Vancouver said it was aware of the messages and had referred the matter to the Vancouver Police Department “as a potential offence.” Vancouver police spokesman Const. Jason Doucette said the department “is aware of an allegation of voter manipulation.”
“The Richmond RCMP is leading the investigation and the VPD has assigned detectives to work with them,” Doucette said.
According to Burnaby RCMP, a file has been opened and it will also assist Richmond RCMP and work with Burnaby’s chief electoral officer on the allegations.
The Wen Zhou Friendship Society did not answer calls or emails Friday, but the Richmond News reported the society had asked members to vote for certain candidates and offered a $20 “transportation subsidy.” A volunteer with the society told the Richmond News they had rescinded the offer after discovering it was illegal.
Records show the Wen Zhou Friendship Society was incorporated in 2001, but dissolved in July of this year for failure to file mandatory reports with the government. The society was restored just last week, after one of its directors filed an application for restoration. Three of its directors have listed addresses in Vancouver, with the fourth in Richmond.
In Surrey, allegations of voter fraud became public two weeks ago, when anti-crime group Wake Up Surrey sent letters to the Surrey RCMP and Elections B.C. alleging that there was a “well-coordinated election fraud scheme underway within the South Asian community.”
Surrey election officials also raised red flags, contacting the B.C. Ministry of Municipal Affairs and then the police about concerns they had with some of the applications they had received.
Surrey RCMP have examined 73 applications to vote by mail that were identified by Surrey’s chief elections officer as having irregularities. As of Friday, Surrey police had interviewed 69 out of 73 people whose personal information was used to complete an application.
The investigation revealed that 67 of these applications were fraudulent, in that they were not completed or signed by the voter listed on the application.
Two of the 67 applications requested ballots be sent to addresses that were not associated to the named applicant, while the other 65 applications listed the applicant’s correct address for delivery of the voting ballot.
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