Essex mayor has first appearance in court over proxy votes

Essex mayor Larry Snively made his first appearance in court Monday after being charged earlier this year with offences under the Municipal Elections Act of Ontario.

He was charged by Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) with allegedly "procuring" ineligible voters to cast ballots during the town's October 2018 municipal election. 

He was represented by lawyer Pat Ducharme, while the case is being prosecuted by assistant Crown attorney Brian White. Snively's next court appearance will be Nov. 16 to discuss a trial date.

OPP charged Snively after an investigation into the "reported misuse of proxy voters during the 2018 municipal election," according to a media release.

Back in October 2018 Snively won the election by 117 votes, with 2,261 ballots cast in his favour. The runner up received 2,144.

Days later, the Essex OPP began investigating allegations of election fraud after the Town of Essex received two official complaints of proxy ballots being signed without the consent of the electors during the municipal elections.

Essex councillor Sherry Bondy was the first to raise concerns about irregularities with proxy votes. At that time she said she heard from four different people about waiting in line to vote, only to be told they had already voted by proxy. But those four said they had not voted by proxy.

To get a proxy, a voter must fill out their information and only sign the form after their appointed proxy has filled out their information. There is also an oral oath taken before the proxy votes.

CBC News obtained and examined 94 of the proxies filed - 31 of the forms were incorrectly filled, but still signed off by the clerk.

Issues ranged from having missing names to not having the signatures by the person electing someone to vote on their behalf.

In January 2019, Ward 4 Coun. Bondy met with town officials to discuss potential areas of the proxy voting system that need to be revised. The Town of Essex's CAO Donna Hunter wanted to wait until the OPP investigation was completed before making changes.

Snively said he would not step down from his role as mayor, but planned to step aside from his role on the local police services board until the matter was settled. That has happened, confirmed Coun. Kim Verbeek to the CBC. 

In July 2020, Essex town council received the report they asked for in September 2019. Council then set timelines to to review each of the polices.

In September, Essex town council approved election reforms, including a complaints policy, which outlines the process of filing election-related concerns, including what complaints are valid, who the concern will go to and what the follow-up will look like.