BREAKING: Judge approves recount for Thornhill

YorkRegion.com
June 19, 2014
By Simone Joseph

Justice Peter Tetley approved yesterday a recount request by Thornhill Liberal candidate Sandra Yeung Racco, yorkregion.com has learned.

The recount will be held Monday at 9 a.m. in Concord, Elections Ontario spokesperson Andrew Willis said.

It is expected to cost $75,000, but it is unclear who is responsible for those costs.

The recount will take one or two days, Willis said.

The recount was triggered, when, in a span of about 24 hours, Yeung Racco was declared the winner by 85 votes, only to have the results overturned by Elections Ontario, due to a tabulation error, handing the riding to PC candidate Gila Martow by the same 85-vote margin.

An application for a judicial recount automatically occurs when a race is closer than 25 votes. However, a judicial recount can be requested by a candidate, or an elector, if the results are close.

In a statement released June 14, Yeung Racco said, “It was obviously a disappointment to learn that Elections Ontario has reversed the result reported on election night,” she said.  “Moreover, we are alarmed at the number of what Elections Ontario deemed to be ‘transposition and minor clerical errors’ that led to this decision.  When the results are as close as they were, it is imperative to ensure that every vote was counted properly.”

Martow had already started fundraising to cover any costs associated with a recount, she said.

“I am not nervous. I sound agitated,” she said. “I was told to fundraise $10,000 to $15,000, which isn’t fun. I thought I was done with all of that,” she said.

The cost of the recount, including the costs of the returning officer and the election clerk, are at the discretion of the judge, who may order the cost paid by whom, to whom, and in what manner it will be paid. If the judge makes no provision as to costs, the costs of the returning officer and election clerk are paid by the province, according to the Elections Act.

Martow is clearly against a recount.

“I want to be treated fairly. I don’t see how it serves the residents of Thornhill to drag this out. I have to delay my swearing in. Why should I spend time and money on this (recount case) rather than doing work?”