THUNDER BAY – CIVIC POLITICS – Frank Scarcello shares, “Upon receiving legal advice I have decided to abandon asking the court for a manual recount”. Scarcello ran in the Westfort ward in the Thunder Bay Civic Election and lost to incumbent Councillor Joe Virdiramo by 45 votes.
The decision comes, Scarcello states after seeking legal advice.
“After taking initial steps to file an application with the court I thought I should consult with a lawyer,” comments Scarcello. “I was advised that it would be difficult to get a ruling in my favour. While 45 votes sounds small, in the context of 5,500 total votes cast, it is not that small”.
“The Municipal Election Act has a provision that allows the City Clerk to apply to court when the difference is 1/1000, which in my case would be 5 votes”.
“Furthermore, since this is litigation, the city is compelled to defend the action, and if a judge rules against me the city would seek costs against me which could result me being on the hook for a large bill,” concluded Scarcello.
The move brings closure to most of the contention over the civic election in Thunder Bay.
In Current River, Andy Wollf is taking to social media to contest the election results. An online petition protesting the election results has been posted.
Wolff in a post on Facebook says, “For the love of democracy please sign this petition if you want local elections with integrity in Thunder Bay. Online voting sucks and it’s evil too because it take what accountability we have and privatizes the whole damn thing. Oh and don’t let this City Administration win. Let’s give a voice to people and help the good guys win!”
In his second run in Current River, Wolff finished second with 698 votes a distant second to Andrew Foulds. Wolff has been an outspoken opponent on election issues, including electronic voting tabulators and Internet voting.
