Mayor Rob Ford allowed to vote again on Mandela, athlete honours

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was allowed to reverse a pair of controversial council votes on Thursday, the day after he voted against congratulating Olympic and Paralympic athletes and naming a street in honour of Nelson Mandela.

Ford voted against the two motions during a council meeting on Wednesday. He later claimed that he had hit the wrong voting button by mistake in both cases.

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When reporters asked him what happened, Ford suggested that he made a mistake that is not uncommon among council members.

"I made a mistake, these guys make a mistake every council [meeting]," he said.

He suggested that the vote had not immediately been reopened "since it’s Rob Ford" who had made the request.

"You know, it’s politics, right?" Ford said.

Coun. Adam Vaughan suggested that Ford’s initial votes weren’t mistakes.

"If he sees a name moving a motion that he doesn’t like, he votes against it," he said Wednesday. "And then when all hell breaks loose, he lies to cover up his incompetence."

The story of the mayor’s controversial votes came up on U.S. comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night TV show.

It was just the latest instance of Ford’s stories catching the eye of comedians and journalists well outside of Toronto.

Others have included bizarre videos of Ford being made public, as well as the mayor's admission that he had smoked crack cocaine.

Late Thursday morning, however, Ford got his chance to change his votes when council agreed to re-open the votes from Wednesday.

Some councillors heckled the mayor by yelling: "Focus."

The mayor reversed his vote in both cases.

Afterward, Ford thanked his fellow councillors for allowing him to revote.

Ford, 44, is in the midst of a campaign for re-election. More than 40 others are also seeking to be elected mayor this October.