Politician's home searched in election investigation
Police in Calgary searched the home of a member of the provincial legislature on Wednesday night as part of an investigation into voting irregularities in last month's municipal election.
Hung Pham, the Conservative incumbent in the provincial riding of Calgary-Montrose, said police officers took computers out of his home during the raid.
Pham said the equipment belonged to his brother, who also lives in the house. He said they were looking for computers that were used to request mail-in ballots.
Diane Danielson, who lost her seat on Calgary city council by 138 votes, asked a court on Wednesday to declare the election results in her ward invalid. Her court motion alleges that there were voting irregularities relating to mail-in ballots.
During the election, 1,266 mail-in ballots were sent to a postal box rented by the husband of Margot Aftergood, who defeated Danielson on Election Day. Aftergood said they requested the mail-in ballots in order to make it easier for people to vote.
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Danielson's motion alleges that about 600 duplicate ballots were mailed out, and that ballots were requested for others, which contravenes the Election Act.
Danielson's motion says she will call as witnesses 30 electors who say the returning officer received completed ballots from them even though they never requested the ballots in the first place. An additional five witnesses will be called who allegedly requested ballots, and then turned up to vote at a voting station.
Aftergood and her lawyers say the election results should stand and deny any wrongdoing.
Pham said he doesn't know whether the mail-in ballots were requested on the computers taken by police on Wednesday night. He also said he was in Vietnam during the time police say the ballot requests were submitted in late September and early October.