2012-03-08 New allegations of voting irregularities come to light in Toronto: CBC

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1142931–new-allegations-of-voting-irregularities-come-to-light-in-toronto-cbc

Alleged voting irregularities in the 2011 federal election have taken a new twist with accusations that hundreds of unregistered voters cast ballots in the Eglinton-Lawrence riding, according to CBC.

The Conservative Party has been dogged for weeks now with allegations that it was behind so-called robo-calls and other dirty tricks that critics says swung the results in its favour.

CBC reports there were at least 2,700 applications for late registration to vote in Eglinton-Lawrence that failed to provide addresses or gave false or non-residential addresses, all of which fail to meet Election Canada rules.

Former veteran Liberal MP Joe Volpe lost the riding to Conservative Joe Oliver by 4,062 votes. Oliver was rewarded with a cabinet post, minister of natural resources, for dethroning Volpe.

Volpe’s lawyer, Anthony Pascale, told CBC he wants Elections Canada to investigate.

“There were an inordinately high number of voters registering who were not on the voters list in order to cast ballots,” Pascale said.

Meanwhile, as first reported in the Toronto Star, federal elections investigators are probing robo-calls in another riding — Nipissing-Temiskaming in northern Ontario — that could have tipped one of the tightest races in the country in favour of the Conservative party.

Incumbent Liberal Anthony Rota lost by just 18 votes to Jay Aspin, the Conservative candidate.

In the week before Election Day, an automated voice message was received by a North Bay environmental activist that raised her suspicions.

“I got a call that said it was Elections Canada calling to say that due to higher than anticipated voter turnout that my polling place was changed,” Peggy Walsh Craig told the Star.

Craig said she had received two calls during the spring 2011 campaign, the first a few weeks before voting day on May 2. It asked if she intended to vote for the Conservative party. She did not. The second came in the week prior to the election.

Elections Canada has been flooded with complaints from across the country about suspicious calls telling voters their polling booth had been changed
Richard J. BrennanNational Affairs Writer