Alleged election fraud scheme in Surrey targeting 15,000 eligible votes

Sep 30 2018, 8:46 am

A community group has filed official complaints to the RCMP and Elections BC over an alleged serious, widespread election fraud scheme to manipulate the results of the upcoming municipal election in Surrey.

Wake Up Surrey says it met with the police on Friday to request that an investigation be launched over a “well-coordinated” scheme underway within the municipality’s South Asian community to support specific political parties.

It is believed at least one of the political parties is behind the scheme.

The alleged fraudsters have a target goal of attaining 15,000 eligible votes by requesting absentee ballots without the knowledge of the actual voter, and obtaining the absentee ballot from a voter and either filling it in directly and forging the voter’s signature or illegally telling the voter who to vote for.

Another method being used is vote buying by paying voters to cast either an in-person or absentee ballot for a candidate.

“In the past three months, many members of our silent majority have come forward with various ethical allegations which demonstrates their concern regarding the current problems and their desire to create a better Surrey for our families,” reads the complaint, adding that the group received “many voluntary disclosures from residences” this past week on the methodologies of the scheme.

“Wake Up Surrey wants to ensure the confidentiality and protection of all witnesses who voluntarily come forward with evidence supporting such election fraud,” continues the complaint.

Hundreds of people – each called a poll captain – are involved in the scheme of attaining fraudulent votes. Registered voting individuals are asked to fill out a form seeking necessary personal information that is private and confidential and return it to the poll captain.

The group also alleges that official mail-in voting under this scheme will be conducted illegally by others.

It calls the vote buying scheme “another attempt to suppress registered voters and undermine our democratic process.”

Daily Hive has reached out to Surrey RCMP, Elections BC, and the City of Surrey for comment.

The civic election is scheduled for October 20. Just over 100,000 ballots were cast in the last election held in 2014.

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